Philemon: refresh my heart

The letter to Philemon is one of only two truly personal letters in the New Testament, although there are of course several that are individually addressed (Timothy, Titus, 2John, 3John, Philemon). In his introduction to the letter, Eugene Petersen says:

Every movement we make in response to God has a ripple effect, touching family, neighbours, friends, community.
Philemon and Onesimus... Had no idea that believing in Jesus would involve them in radical social change.

There are three main players in this little drama and a big supporting cast.

Paul, the apostle who although now a prisoner was once the itinerant preacher under who’s ministry the others found faith in Christ.

Philemon, probably a fairly wealthy business man of his time. Known for his faith and his ability to bring joy, encouragement and refreshing to others. A church leader perhaps in Colossae.

Onesimus his name means useful, but he’d proved to be far from that in his past. He was a runaway slave, formerly of little use to anyone but of great use to both Paul and Philemon because of his transformed life through faith in Christ. It’s possible that Onesimus is not only a runaway but a thief to boot.

Also involved but not mentioned here is Tychicus who has travelled with Onesimus to deliver the letters to the Colossian and Laodicean churches as well as this personal letter to Philemon (Col. :7-9)

The focus of the letter is the need for both Onesimus and Philemon to “do the right thing”, that is the thing that most honours God. For Onesimus it is to return to the master he had formerly wronged, for Philemon it is to take Onesimus back, but not as a slave and not subjecting him to the punishment the law and society might have expected. It’s a fascinating insight into household life and the impact Christianity had on it. But the things that caught my attention, and the thing I want us to think about most is how Paul speaks of Philemon:

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people. V7

The “heart” is the deepest emotional place. It’s the place from which the compassion of Jesus springs.

We're all aware of things that drain our hearts and we know that there are other things that refresh our hearts. If we imagine that we have a "heart tank" that gives us the reserves for ministry and missions, we need to make sure it's regularly topped up. If our resources are low, our ability to minister will be low. We know that God can make up the difference, but that's about when we run out of resources not about when our resources are depleted. It's a different thing altogether.

What refreshes Paul’s heart?

1. Stories of faith among God’s people.

In almost all of Paul’s letter you will find something about which he gives thanks with regard to his readers. In Rome it is their faith that is reported all over the world; Corinth-all their spiritual gifts, Ephesus it’s their love for others as it is in the letter to the Colossians.

2. Expressions of love

Jesus remains largely unquoted in the the New Testament outside of the gospels. Only one time do we hear anyone make any mention of what he said and that is Paul in Acts 20 when he’s about to leave Ephesus. There are other times when people remember what Jesus said, but this is the only direct quote and it’s interesting because it’s not something we find in the gospels.
But clearly Paul understood one core aspect of the teaching of Jesus with great clarity. His call to love one another. And Paul is clearly refreshed when he hears about love in action amongst the people of God.

3. Generosity

Paul’s appeal for Onesimus and his obvious desire to have him around to help, is not pushed on the basis of authority and apostleship. Rather Paul wants Philemon to choose to be generous. Remember that formerly Onesimus belonged to Philemon as his slave. He owned him and as such he had the right to sell him, recover losses by exacting punishments etc, etc. But Paul knows that Philemon is a generous-hearted man (he even asks about the guest room), and wants him to express that generosity.

4. Forgiveness

There’s no attempt in this letter to cover up what Onesimus might be guilty of having done. There’s no attempt to suggest that this is not relevant to the current situation. A debt remains. Sin always has consequences. The death of Jesus doesn’t remove the consequences of sin, it removes the penalty for sin. But, again as Jesus would have said, if we’ve experienced forgiveness how can we withhold that forgiveness from each other?

Paul is not asking Philemon to forget the debt owed to him, in fact Paul offers to cover that himself (although I’m guessing he’s hoping for another act of generosity by Philemon at this point!). But he is asking him to forgive Onesimus for what he has done.

5. Obedience

Finally Paul’s heart is refreshed by obedience. Not to his words but to the full expression of a fully devoted life to the pattern of Jesus. In verse 21, Paul is confident of Philemon’s obedience. In other words he is confident that Philemon, above everything else, wants to follower Jesus wholeheartedly.

Carol Service 2008

One of our readings this evening was all about a rather strange set of visitors who called in to see a group of livestock herders during the night shift. These were ordinary folk doing an ordinary job on an ordinary night. Nothing spectacular or special about their surroundings, nothing odd about the weather, nothing strange about the passing hours. But then something quite remarkable happened. Suddenly our late shift shepherd’s night was disturbed. An angel appeared, made an announcement and then was joined by a choir of angels who began to sing. It’s enough to wake a sleeping sheep!

You can tell it wasn’t normal practice for this kind of thing to happen to this group of shepherds because although they were used to the sights and sounds of the night–the sound of an approaching wolf maybe, the hoot of an owl, the rustle of leaves, the moving shadows, the wax and wane of the moon light–this one caught them by surprise. The Bible simply says that they were terrified. I suspect that this was something of an understatement.

So shaken were these poor shepherds that the first thing the angel says to them is “Don’t be afraid!”. Easy for an angel who has just appeared from nowhere to say, not so easy for a group of boot-quaking shepherds to do.

But then comes the announcement:

I bring you good news of great joy to all the people. Today, in the city of David a Saviour has been born to you. He is Christ, the Lord.

And then more angels appear and join in singing: Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.

Three things for Christmas

#1 It’s a Celebration

Christmas is an opportunity for each of us to set aside all the pressures of our daily lives and focus on God. The amazing thing is that God loves us so much that he became one of us in order to communicate with us. He became a human being so that he could reveal the full extent of his love for us.

Of all the ways he could have entered the world–descending on a royal throne surrounded by angels maybe; arriving in a whirlwind riding a majestic horse perhaps; walking down some magnificent stairway possibly–he entered the world the same way we all enter. Born as baby.
I wonder if the reason he did that was simply because the one thing he didn’t want us to be was to be afraid of him.

#2 It’s an opportunity for salvation

Salvation is not a word you hear very much these days. Although you might often hear someone say, “Thank you, you saved my life,” when what they actually mean is, “thank you for the change, now I won’t get a parking ticket.” But when the Bible talks about salvation, it is talking about the chance to rebuild a broken relationship with God. A relationship shattered by rebellion but rebuilt through the coming of Jesus.

Put simply, salvation is forgiveness for the past, the power to manage the present and a secure hope for the future.

But be careful, this is a gift and the thing about a gift is that you need to accept it.

#3 It’s an opportunity for reconciliation

I knew a pair of twin brothers. They had their rivalries, their ups and downs together, but once they they fell out big time. They refused to talk to each other, they cut themselves off from family connections. They avoided each other at all costs. Do you know what they fell out over? Rabbits. Yes, rabbits. They both bred them and took them to shows. And somehow, don’t ask me how, they managed to fall out over them. I don’t know if they ever spoke to each other again, but when the angels sang on that hillside they sang about peace on earth.

The Bible says that through Jesus Christ you can make peace with God, and if you do that then you will receive peace from God. When you’re at peace with God and you’re experiencing peace from God it becomes easier to make peace with other people.

Conclusion

Tonight we’ve talked about the coming of Jesus, we’ve read about the events and we’ve reflected on those event. But here’s the challenge: When Christmas is all over will Jesus go back in the box with all the other Christmas decorations? Will the nativity get forgotten until next year’s Christmas plans are being made? Or will you let it make a difference all year round. Will you accept God’s good news of great joy that a Saviour has been born to you, and that you can know forgiveness and hope and reconciliation with God and with others.

This is God’s precious Christmas gift to you, will you accept it?

Hope Realised

Because we know the end from the beginning we forget how, as the story unfolds, everything must have appeared as out of the ordinary at the very least. Angels popping up all over the place making major announcements looks quite commonplace to us as we read the story, but it was far from that. In Luke 1 Gabriel appears to Zechariah, six months later he turns up at Mary’s house. Sometime in the course of the next 9 months an unspecified angel appears to Joseph in a dream. So vivid and real is this experience that Joseph changes his plans for a quiet divorce and accepts Mary as his wife and the unborn child as his own.

Outside Bethlehem an angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds along with a choir to announce the birth of Jesus.

Sometime during Mary and Joseph’s stay in Bethlehem a group of wise men turn up guided not by an angel but by a star this time. Somehow in a dream they are warned about Herod’s false intentions, which may or may not have been an angel, we’re not told. Joseph then gets another angelic visit to go to Egypt and when Herod dies, you guessed it, an angel of the Lord tells him it’s time to go back to Nazareth. The next time angels would appear to human beings is when they announce the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

The point is that kings saw angels, prophets saw angels, heroes like Daniel saw angels, but carpenters and shepherds?

The Angelic Message

Good news of great joy to all people

The extraordinary thing is that God chooses to send a message of history changing importance via the angel to ordinary people. And these ordinary shepherds did not go onto become celebrities, to host their own chat shows or star in reality TV. They didn’t judge the strictly come shepherding competitions, or bequeath their staffs to the Bethlehem museum of sacred artefacts. We don’t even know their names, something that is also true of the wise men who would visit Jesus.

Numbers don’t matter.

Responding to God’s revelation is what matters most.

How do you respond to good news?

You can usually tell when someone has received good news. Take the presenter on Radio 5 this morning, Phil Williams. He’s an Aston Villa supporter and yesterday they beat Wets Ham to go third in the Premiership. Now that might not be very important or significant to you, but to him it certainly put a spring in his step and he was bright and clearly very happy this morning.

Responding to the Message

When the shepherds got the good news message from the angel they decided to do a number of things.

First they decided to go and see for themselves: Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing…

They made a personal journey of discovery. You may hear the good news via someone else, but you must experience it for yourself.

Second they couldn’t contain the message: When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.

I doubt that they had had much theological education or philosophical tutoring. They simply shared what they knew. I’d guess that if someone had asked them, “How can this happen?” there response would most likely have been, “We don’t know. We just know that God sent us a messenger and what the messenger told us turned out to be true.”

Thirdly they could not contain their worship: The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

God does not lie or cheat or deceive us. He does not tell shepherds on a hillside something that isn’t true and he doesn’t do that to us either. You can trust him. When he says a Saviour has been born, he means a Saviour has been born. And if this is true, everything else he has to say is also true.

Shepherding the good news

How can we be more like the shepherds when it comes to how we handle to good news of Jesus Christ?

First we can share the simple truth of what we’ve heard and experienced for ourselves. People may not believe you, people may thing you’re a little crazy, but if you’ve experienced the good news, you know it’s true.

Second, we can let it show. The shepherds teach us that one way we can let it show is through our heartfelt worship. They returned praising and glorifying God, we can too. This praise was rooted in the truth of what they had seen and heard, what they had witnessed first hand. It came out of their personal experience. You and I not only have our personal experience of God’s truthfulness but we have a written record of it through centuries of Biblical and later church history.

Letting it show through our worship is only part of our story. From Luke’s account we have no further information about how this encounter with God and his purposes affected these shepherds. We don’t know what happened to them.

What we do know is that we are changed by our encounter with Jesus. Paul says that when we become Christians we die to old ways of living and begin to live a new life.

I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God…

Conclusion

If you’re still waiting for an angel to pop in to see you and tell you what’s happening and what to do, you might just have to wait a while. It might look common place in the nativity story, but it’s not as common as you might think.

God has entrusted his message of good news to a different group of messengers.

In the days of Jesus’ birth, God sent an angel to a group of shepherds who in turn became the first messengers to other people. And now It’s our turn. You and I are God’s messengers to the world. To our communities, to our neighbours and colleagues and friends and families.
The local church has become the carriers of the message that is the hope of the world and you and I are the local church.

Hope Revealed

Today was our All-Age Nativity. The following short talk continued our theme of Hope.

The story you have just seen presented is all we expect it to be. We had angles making announcements, shepherds watching flocks, wise men travelling long distances and a baby being born. We had governors whose names we dread having to try and pronounce, a bad king and a stable.

We sang all the right songs and had we the time would have sung some more. We might even have sung about all our hopes and dreams being met in him tonight.

But are they?

Does a Play-station 3 count, or a new bike? How does the headache of trying to sit the whole family around your dining table fit with the birth of Jesus? Or what about paying the credit card bill in January?

And there are the hopes and dreams for a peaceful Christmas, for the end to injustice and poverty, solutions to the world’s biggest problems and answers to the bigger questions like how come the BBC didn’t see the problems with having only three couples left in the semi-final of Strictly Come Dancing?

What are the hopes and dreams that are met in Jesus Christ?

First there are the hopes and dreams of God’s great promises. You need to remember that in Israel the voice of God spoken through the prophets had not been heard for almost 400 years. Almost 800 years before Jesus was born, one of the prophets had spoken about the coming of one who would reconnect us with the God who loves us. He said a child would be born, that God would keep his promise, and now he has.

Second, there are the hopes of a new start. With the arrival of Jesus everything is about to change. As Jesus reaches 30 he begins preaching and teaching and changing lives. For three years he travels around Palestine touching lives, making the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the dead live. He shows people that even though they had grown up thinking that God had forgotten them, that he couldn’t possibly love them, that it simply wasn’t true. He inspired hope and faith in many.

Thirdly, there’s the hope that this can be true for us today. After three short years the authorities finally decided to do away with Jesus. You might be tempted to think that this meant the end of all he had done. But you’d be wrong. 

After three days he came back to life, returned to the people he’d spent his time with and told them, “I still love you, now go and share this message, these opportunities for change with everyone you meet.

2000 years later lives are still changing, people are still discovering that no matter how little they might love themselves, God still loves them more than they can imagine.

You can discover that too. We have, I have.

The baby at the heart of our story offers you more hope than you can imagine. He offers you something far better, more precious than the latest toy or high-tech gadget. He offers you the unconditional love of God and the unlimited power of God to transform your life.

Now that’s a hope worth having.

Hope Expected

Today is the second Sunday in Advent and we’re considering the expectation of hope. By the time we get to the New Testament we become increasingly aware that the expectations surrounding the arrival of God’s promised Messiah were tied up in political expectations of removal of the Roman rulers and restoration of Israel as a great nation.

But before we judge the first century people for failing to see beyond their situation, let’s remember that God had brought about political change in the past. For example, when Hezekiah was king, God rescued the people from the advancing army of Sennacharib.
So it’s not unreasonable to see God’s promises in the context of present circumstances.
Let’s continue what we started last week by putting our reading into its historical context.

A short history of Israel

In 587BC Jerusalem finally fell to the Babylonians and the people were taken into exile far from their homeland. Amongst these captives was a young man called Daniel and his three friends. Most of know the story of Daniel in the Lion’s den, a story about God’s faithfulness to Daniel who had been faithful to God. For 70 years Daniel lived out his life as a servant to a foreign king in a foreign land. While others might have been tempted to think that God had deserted the people, Daniel, Ezekiel (the prophet of the time) and Ezra, among many, knew differently.
As the story of Daniel comes to a close the Babylonian empire falls to a new empire ruled by kings from Persia.

The OT book of Ezra begins with this new empire and the story of the new king’s favourable view of Jerusalem. But this is not the king’s idea, this is an idea planted in him by God himself.
God was, as Ezra points out, fulfilling his word spoken through Jeremiah as he ‘moved the heart of Cyrus’ the new king to declare it was time to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Setting off with gifts from the people and the items that had previously been removed from the Temple, Zerubbabel lead the first group of exiles back to Jerusalem.

You might have expected them to have enjoyed great success, but life isn’t like that and it would be a long process of rebuilding the Temple, then the city walls and their relationship with God. They faced opposition in Jerusalem that caused them to stop building the Temple for 15-20 years. When Nehemiah returned some years later, he too faced local opposition as he rebuilt the walls of the old city. And between the Temple project and the walls being built they faced possible annihilation at the hands of Haman in the story of Esther, the ultimate trophy wife who turns out to be God’s chosen spokesperson to act to save the people. Fancy that, a woman saving all the men, as John Ortberg once pointed out!

While the history gets a little complex as we try and match Biblical names of Persian kings to their kingdoms, it’s clear that the returning exiles didn’t have everything go their way. As one king supported them, another denied them support. How hard it must have been to keep faith with God’s promises when there seemed to be no let up in the pressure. Just like the people, described by Isaiah, who walked in darkness in the north of the country, these people would have had a tough time seeing the hope in the midst if their situation.

Zechariah’s role

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai, speaking to the people during the time of rebuilding the Temple after the return from exile in Babylon.  God uses Zechariah to encourage the people to keep going with the rebuilding despite the opposition they face and sadness they feel over past glories and past failures. Zechariah does so by painting the bigger picture of God’s eternal purposes through a series of visions and prophetic narrative. The picture he paints is of real life, with real ups and real downs. It’s about pressure and faithfulness, of failure and restoration. But ultimately it’s the story of God’s triumph and God’s purposes.

Three key points along the way

#1 Recommitment

Chap.1 Tell the people this: this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Return to me,” declares the Lord Almighty, ”and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

#2 Restoration

Chap.8 “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem”

#3 Resolution

Chap.14 A day of destruction and a day of glory: “The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.”

The coming King

This then is God’s framework into which he introduces the coming king. It’s a framework of prophetic hope and present experience of return and persecution. And into this context of God speaks these amazing words of hope and restoration in chapter 9. A king will come on the colt of a donkey rather than a horse. A symbol for some of peace rather than power. And the peace this king will proclaim will be peace to the nations plural, not peace to the nation of Israel alone.
A covenant of hope

All of this comes about, not because of what the people do, not even because of what the promised king will do, but because of what God has already done. He has made a covenant with the people. A covenant that goes right back to Abraham and is renewed and developed through Moses and and the monarchy God established. All of this points forward as prophecy does towards a future event. The king of which Zechariah speaks is none other than Jesus himself, who rides triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt.

Prisoners of Hope

Who are the prisoners of hope?

In Zechariah’s prophecy they are the ones who benefit from God’s blessing (I will restore twice as much to you); they are the ones who will rise up against ‘Greece’ a symbol of those who seek to oppress them; and they are the ones who will become warriors instead of a frightened weary group of folk who can’t even complete a building project out of fear of their neighbours. In other words, for a prisoner of hope, how it looks is not how it is going to be. Everything can change because God is bigger than any circumstance or situation, everything will change change because God is working out his plan.

What imprisons you?

Fear: fear of lack, fear of failure, fear of someone?
Greed: you cannot serve two masters.
Sin: Put simply doing those things that separate you from God. Hebrews 12 talks about the sin that so easily entangles. Easy to get into, difficult to break free from.
But in Christ God has done everything necessary to set you free. He has done everything necessary so that you don’t have to do anything except believe.

Getting free

The good news is that Jesus came to set prisoners free. And, as John's gospel points out, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.

How free do you want to be?

Just like the people to whom Zechariah spoke you do not have to be defined by your current circumstances. You can become a prisoner of hope, a captive of God’s kingdom, rather than a prisoner of your present worries and concerns. The Bible says the process of finding freedom is very simple. 

First of all you need to recognise that you need the freedom.

Second that true freedom can only be found through Jesus Christ. He is, as Paul points out, the only true mediator between God and humanity.

Third you need to confess your sin and turn away from it all. Sin separates us from God, it’s all those things we do that we know deep down inside are not the things God would have us do.
Sin is our rebellion against God.

Fourthly you need to trust God to do what he has promised. If you believe then you will have the life he promises.

This is not a get out of jail free card, but a live life to the fullest card. This is not about doing the minimum you need to do in order to secure a place in heaven when you die, but a choice to live your life totally in the hands of God rather than your own. A choice to become all that God intended you to be or settle for being manipulated into that which the world wants you to be.
A choice about real freedom with God or imprisonment with the world.

Your choice, so choose well.

Hope Foretold

You don’t have to have been around the church for many Christmases to know the importance and significance of Isaiah 9. Unto us a son is born… and his name shall be called… As Isaiah looks to the future we recognise the past as the prophetic word is fulfilled through the birth of Jesus. But although that is the natural place for us to finish, let’s begin with Israel and the situation at the time that Isaiah spoke these all-important words.

For 120 years Judah, the land of the two tribes who had remained loyal to the house of David, had been ruled by God-honouring, faithful kings. The last of these was king Uzziah who was succeeded by his son Ahaz.

Ahaz was not a God-honouring king.

Ahaz did not do what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord… 2Ki.16:2

Aram (modern-day Syria) and Israel (the northern kingdom) attacked and besieged Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, but failed to conquer it. Ahaz made an alliance with the king of Assyria. In the end, rather than helping Ahaz, the king of Assyria attacked him and defeated him, so Ahaz and Judah became subject to Assyria. Ahaz had used the treasures in the Temple to pay for Assyria’s help and then, when Ahaz became vassal to Assyria he closed the Temple completely. It is somewhat ironic that a future king of Assyria would help restore the Temple.

2Chron. 28 tells us that Ahaz was under even more pressure from Philistine and Edomite raiding parties on the western and eastern borders. So the kingdom was under pressure from three sides.

The tribal territory of Zebulun and Naphtali was in the far north of the kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom. This would become the area of Galilee in New Testament times. It would also have been the first part of the kingdom to fall into enemy hands.

It’s against this background of the king’s refusal to trust God and the impending invasion from Assyria and the pressure from Israel, Philistine and Edomite raids that Isaiah speaks about God’s plan and purpose in chapter 9. This is the darkness, the gloom that cast its shadow over the land. Ahaz was looking everywhere else other than to God for deliverance.

Into these dark days, God speaks light. He speaks words of deliverance and hope.  Not only this, but the land to be honoured is the land that has rejected God’s appointed king in the past. Remember that after Solomon’s death, the kingdom divided. It is this land, not Jerusalem, not Judah, that will bring forth God’s Son.

God’s promise

• Light from darkness
  
• Joy from despair
  
• Freedom from burdens
  
• Peace from battle
  

Light from Darkness

To paraphrase Jesus: People who are in the light don’t need light, but people in darkness are the ones most in need of light. Without light we are destined to stumble around in darkness.

Jesus offers us: 

• Light to guide. Your word is a light to my feet, a lamp to my path
  
• Light to expose. People love darkness… come into the light
  
• Light to bring life. In him was life and that life was the light of men.
  

The Message: light to live by

NLT: The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

Joy from despair

The Psalmist says: You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…

James tells us to: Consider it an opportunity for great joy when “troubles” come our way. What he’s not saying is, “Be happy when things are going badly” as if joy is defined as some form of positive thinking. Joy in this context is connected with a growing faith. Far from being superficial, joy is discovered in the process of a deepening and maturing faith faith in God. Joy comes form being able to say with David, “Even though I walk through the valley if the shadow death, I will not be afraid because you are with me” It’s recognising that light shines in darkness and darkness cannot overcome it.

Freedom from burdens

The days of Midian is a reference to Gideon. A time when the people were suffering the darkness of oppression in the land. In the story, we’re introduced to Gideon as he threshes wheat in a winepress to hide what he is doing from the Midianite marauders. Judges 6 tells us:
The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves and strongholds. They left Israel with no food, reducing the nation to starvation. And God rescued them. Just as he’d done so before when he rescued them from Egypt and would do again and again as Israel stumbled their way into disobedience like a repeating refrain through history.

Their heavy burdens may have come through their sin, but they were always lifted by the grace of God as he acted in love towards them.

Fast forward into the New Testament and Jesus promises an easy yolk. A light burden. Come to me all you who are weary... and receive rest. My yolk in easy and my burden is light

Peace from battle

Where once the people suffered from invasion and war, God promises peace. The one who was coming would in deed be the Prince of Peace. In the last book of the Bible John sees a vision of a great city. A city lit by the glory of God, a place of joy, lifted burdens and peace. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

These are God’s promise, and he intends to keep them through the gift of a Son.

The One to come

Isaiah paints the picture of an eternal kingdom ruled by God himself. Not only ruled by him but established and accomplished by him.

Conclusion

People who walk in darkness matter to God. Good or bad, they matter to God. His promise is to all of them. It’s a promise of hope and possibility because God is a God of hope and grace.

We Believe in the missionary God

We’re at the end of our series on things we believe. We’ve looked at our vision, we’ve looked at our mission. We’ve considered stewardship and giving, discipleship and prayer. Our last topic brings us almost full-circle.

We believe in the missionary God.

This is not just about believing in the mission of God, or the mission mandated to the church. When we say: We believe in the missionary God, we’re saying something about the nature and purposes of God that ultimately must be reflected in the people who call themselves the community of God’s people.

A missionary God calls a missionary people

The story of Abraham

Most of us know the story of Abraham. Of how God called him to leave his home and family to journey to a new home, a home God would give to him. We know about the promises God made to him: to have a son, to be the father of many nations. We know about the great test of faithfulness that Abraham faced when God called him to sacrifice his only son, and we know too the faith Abraham expressed even at that time and the vindication he experienced from God. As we trace his story we see a fallible man whom God loves, reveals himself to and move towards a life fully lived for his purposes. And, in the story of Abraham we expressed the missionary heart of God.

John Stott says of Genesis chapter 12 that: The previous eleven chapter lead up them [ the opening sentence] ; the rest of the Bible follows and fulfils them.

Chapter 12 contains the first occurrence of a covenant promise that will be repeated over and over again in the OT: I will be their God, and they will be my people. It is in chapter 12 that God reveals his missionary character.

Chapter 11 takes us to Babel, the high point of human expansion and endeavour to this point in history. But God’s plans are not human plans. He calls a man, Abram, to turn around and walk in a different direction, to go against the flow of human expansion and rebellion. He calls him to follow God faithfully and wholeheartedly.

The promise is simple. If Abram is obedient, if he is faithful, then God will lead him to a land that will become his home, he will make him into a great nation and his children will become the vehicle for God’s blessing of people across the whole world. The promise is made clear in Gen.22:18 through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. No wonder Abraham becomes a focal point for both Old and New Testament writers.

The nature of God’s blessing

Ultimately the nature of the blessing that God wants to give is expressed in the New Testament most famously in John 3: ...that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. God’s greatest blessing is not wealth or power. It’s not health or even long life. It’s not influence or great skill or ability. It isn’t even a great ministry. God’s greatest blessing is eternal life. Its forgiveness for sin and a promise of a place in God’s great house forever.

A missionary God wants a missionary people

In truth, the missionary God calls his missionary people.

• Go into all the world and make disciples
  
• As the Father has sent me, so I send you
  
• You shall be my witnesses...
  

According to Jesus we are like a vine, designed to bear fruit and when we do we glorify our Father in heaven.

If mission is part of God’s character then it ought naturally to be a part of the nature of the church that bears his name. To be the people of the missionary God we need to be a missionary people. And to be a missionary people we must follow the example of the missionary God.

Jesus defined his mission:

• Bringing the kingdom of God near (Matt. 4:17)
  
• Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets (5:17)(Later Jesus would answer a question about the greatest commandment with the words: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love others as you want to be loved. He went on to say: All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. (22:37ff))
  
• To bring forgiveness
  
• To call sinners rather than the righteous
  
• To reveal the Father
  
• To build his church
  
• To give his life as a ransom for many
  

In Luke’s gospel he defined his mission at the beginning of his ministry by reading from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, the oppressed will be set free and the time of the Lord’s favour has come.

How does this translate into lifestyle?

#1 Recognise that God has called the church to be a missionary community

#2 Choose to seek to live a missional life(More about God than about self.)

#3 Follow Christ’s example (Love others, serve them.)
#3 Pray persistently and consistently for opportunities.
#4 Invite others to join the journey

This is what Isaiah had to say: Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. (Isa.58:10)

We Believe in Tithing

Probably the most well known verse in the Bible on the importance and significance of tithing are found in the final book of the Old Testament.

  "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' 
"In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

These are strong and challenging words, but what relevance do they have for the church of today? Well I believe they have enormous relevance. If you want one positive reason to practice the Biblical principle of tithing, then surely these verses give it to you.

RT Kendal wrote a book about tithing. It was subtitled: A call to serious, Biblical giving. Whatever we think about the issue, we should certainly consider giving as a serious part of our stewardship of all the resources God has given to us. 

In his book RT Kendal quotes another writer who says: When a fellow says, “It ain’t the money but the principle of the thing,’ it’s the money.

Nothing bothers us more than thinking someone is about to tell us how to live our lives or spend our money. We’ve earned it, we should decide what to do with it. But is that biblical? If we’re serious about wholeheartedly following God, then can we shut him out of our finances?

Tithing myths

#1 If you tithe God will make your rich.

We don’t give to God in order to get his blessing on what we do. We give as a loving response to his love for us. It’s a sign, not a merit badge.

#2 Tithing is part of the Law of the OT and we’re no longer under the Law.

True we’re no longer under the law, but Abraham wasn’t under the law when he chose to give away a tenth of the goods he’d recovered when rescuing Lot to the king of Salem as an honour gift.

And in the New Testament Jesus takes the religious people to task for tithing but ignoring other aspects of a life pleasing to God. When he does so he tells them that they should pay attention to both the weightier matters of the law (justice, mercy and faith) without neglecting tithing (Matt.23:23). And Jesus is not just saying, if you can, but he says you ought to tithe. In Greek it’s the same word applied here as it it is when Jesus says to Nicodemus You must be born again if you want to see the Kingdom of God.

Paul on giving: What do you think Paul meant when he said each person should put aside an amount in keeping with his income? Do you think that Paul, an educated Jew and a devoted follower of Jesus Christ would suggest that your giving should be done only in line with what you could afford, or do you think that he’s reinforcing the idea that there’s a reasonable proportion of income that everyone should consider as the appropriate amount to give?

#3 A tithe (10%) is all that God wants from me, when I’ve given that, there’s no more giving to be done.

In biblical terms, 10% is a guideline starting point. It’s not the top end of what we should give, it’s not a kingdom tax that we pay.

What kind of givers is God looking for?

• Willing ones (2 Cor. 9:6)
  
• Obedient ones (Mal.3)
  
• Generous ones (Luke 21-the widow’s offering) Not only was she generous but she was sacrificial too.
  

What stops us from tithing?

Selfishness: Are our reasons for not giving simply excuses to keep it for ourselves?

Are we afraid that we won’t have enough money to meet our needs?

Are we unwilling to follow a Biblical principle? Rebels at heart.

Can we not imagine that God will bless us?

Do we believe:

• That God can, and will, meet all our needs (Phil.4:19)
  
• That he has a positive plan for us (Jer.29:11)
  
• That the kingdom of God should be our priority (Matt. 6:33)
  
• That we should count our lives as worthless compared to knowing Christ (Phil.3)
  
• That to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21)
  
• My life is worthless to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:24). And therefore that means that, in the word of the song we sing, “Lord, I am not my my own, no longer my own”
  

What is it we fear that keeps us from tithing?

One simple reason to tithe

Because of what it will do for the work of God’s kingdom on earth. Personally speaking I’ve always considered the local church as proper place for my tithe. Anything else I want to support, I do so beyond that.

How do you get it right?

How do you work out what to give to God? If not a tithe, how else would you measure your giving? The tithe is helpful, not because it tells us what will appease God, but because it stops us getting our giving out of proportion. You could give what’s left after you’ve met all your expenses each month. But then what do you do when you spend a little more than you intended? Do you simply give a little less than you intended? You could decided what’s manageable whilst still leaving you enough to spend how you want. You could soften the financial challenge by including your time or factoring something else into the equation.

First you have to decide what your reasons are for not following the Biblical injunction to give 10% of your income back to God. I put it this way around because it’s a harder question to answer than deciding what percentage of your income to give. Second you need to take a good look at what you are currently giving and why you currently give as you do. Third you need to work out a plan to get to where you understand God wants you to be form where you are.

Personally I have a simple plan. Each year, as we do our tax returns I check our P60’s to see what we’’ve earned in that year. Then I look at what we’ve given away and do the simple calculation. If it’s above, I leave it for another year, if it’s below I put it right.

But what if you’ve never tithed, and you’re in debt and you can see no way to go from what you currently give to what you now believe God is calling you to give?

Set a goal. If it take 5 years to get to the point where you tithe Biblically then set about it today. Don’t wait for the day to come around when you can afford to tithe, because believe me it’s highly unlikely that that day will ever arrive. decide now that you are going to make thins a non-negotiable habit for the rest of your life.

Second, work out what 10% is and deduct this from your income whether you give it or not. The point here is to look at what income you would have to live on if you tithed. You might be surprised to discover that 10% isn’t that much when you get right down to it. And if you practice now living on 90% you’ll be preparing yourself to truly give it way in the future.

You might also find you can move to a tithe sooner than you thought. It might be difficult, and it might take some time, but it’s not impossible.

And what if God is true to his word? What if he will do what he promises if we will show our commitment through tithing? What if we “brought the whole tithe into the storehouse”, and God opened heaven’s blessing to us.

Is that not worth the risk?

We Believe in Fellowship

National Statistics for the UK show that: 20% of people say they have neither a ‘satisfactory friendship network’ nor a ‘satisfactory relatives network’.

It was the poet John Donne who wrote:

No man is an island entire of itself.

The poem goes on to say: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.

According to Rick Warren it is through fellowship that the church grows warmer. In other words, relationships develop and deepen through regular contact. This is not rocket science, in fact we all know that in order to build good relationships the two things we need are time and proximity. Fellowship is a key characteristic of what it means to be the people of God together on a journey. There is no escaping it.

It was in sharing fellowship that the early church developed it’s communal life. Because they were together they could pray together they could share together the joys and struggles of living lives dedicated to God. It was because of fellowship that Luke could describe the early church as a community in which no one was in need, and historians of the age would marvel at the love shared among those early followers of Jesus.

The reason the Bible doesn’t give us much instruction about how to live the life of a lone believer is because we are made for community. We were meant to be in a community of faith. We are, to use Rick Warren’s phrase, Formed for God’s family.

The OT is the story of the people of God as they journey through the wilderness, make their home in the Promised Land, lose and return to it. Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God, about those who followed him, who listened to what he had to say, as his family, his brothers and sisters. Paul writes to the churches of God in Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Colossae. He speaks often about loving each other, comforting each other, encouraging each other, even correcting and rebuking each other. His favourite image to describe the church is a body where every one plays a part. Even when he writes to an individual, Timothy, Titus, Onesimus, it’s in the context of being a community.

Fellowship is important because we were designed to share life together.

Fellowship is important because we are exiles, we don’t belong in this world, this kingdom this host empire in which we find ourselves. If we feel like we do belong, then we’ve become too comfortable.

Fellowship and the credit crunch

How does being a family affect the way we live in these times of insecurity and instability in the markets? Is it every man or woman for themselves? Do we revert to a “Charity begins at home” mentality? Or do we make a stand and say we part of a bigger family. We carry responsibility for a wider family.

Being God’s family in troubled times is a tough choice. To remain generous and outwardly focused is harder when the going gets tough. But God has called us to live differently in the world. To have security in him, not ourselves, not the financial markets, not bricks and mortar but hope and faith.

Let’s finish with a prayer for our troubled times:

Lord God, we live in disturbing days:
across the world,
prices rise,
debts increase,
banks collapse,
jobs are taken away,
and fragile security is under threat. 

Loving God, meet us in our fear and hear our prayer:
be a tower of strength amidst the shifting sands,
and a light in the darkness;
help us receive your gift of peace,
and fix our hearts where true joys are to be found,
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

We Believe in Stewardship

Steward and stewarding are typically defined in terms of looking after something that does not belong to you. It is an act of service. Air stewards, racing stewards.

In the Ancient Near East, a steward was a servant who looked after his master’s property or household affairs. Jesus told a story about a dishonest steward in Luke 16, and he told stories about faithful servants too. 

A steward was clearly a trusted member of the household staff. Joseph in the OT became the trusted servant in Potiphar’s house.

So, if you and I are stewards of something, we need to ask ourselves firstly what it is that we are stewarding and secondly how can we steward as the best stewards we can be.

In Matt. 6 we discover some key principles about our stewardship responsibilities.

#1 Stewards of our treasure

Jesus says: Do not store up treasure on earth… but store up treasure in heaven.
If our hearts express what truly matters to us, then Jesus says that what everyone sees with regard to the treasure you accumulate will point to the place where our hearts reside.

What counts as heavenly treasure?

You might think that worship counts as heavenly treasure, you might think prayer counts as heavenly treasure. And yes, God commands our worship and calls us to prayer. But he’s also passionate about other things.

Last week we heard about the Micah challenge.

Micah 6:8 has long been a verse which has occupied my thoughts: He has shown you O man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord your God.

It’s interesting to notice that justice and mercy are key values in God’s eyes, but they are not isolated from a deep relationship with himself. To love mercy and to act justly are things to which all people should aspire, but they are not enough to build treasure in heaven. They need to arise out of a relationship with God. On their own they are simply good works that honour God, yes, but merciful and just people don’t get to heaven by virtue of their mercy and love and concern for justice.

A humble walk with God is also an essential ingredient.

And for those who see themselves as okay with God because they’ve entered into a relationship with him through Jesus Christ, the words of the prophet are clear. Add justice and mercy to your portfolio. Not to gain merit before God, but to do what pleases him.

To paraphrase one of the speakers at the recent leaders conference: If you want your life to matter, live it in the context of what matter to God. Justice and mercy matter to God.

#2 Stewards of ourselves

There are times when we are all guilty of sitting back and simply waiting for God to do something spectacular on our behalf. To somehow change us overnight, to put right all our faults and failures with a wave of his hand. But Jesus reminds us that we are to pay attention to our spiritual health. If your eyes are good, you whole body will be full of light. Can you hear the echo of his words to Simon as he washed his feet? If you’ve had a bath, you need only wash your feet.

Being a good steward of one’s self is to follow Jesus closely, to keep in step with Spirit as Paul would urge us all to do.

This we do by faith, for we know that without faith we cannot please God; Heb. 11:6

And by confession: 1John 1:9

#3 Stewards of one master

Verse 24 presents us with a simple truth: You can have only one master.

#4 Stewards of an alternative world-view

Having laid a foundation of the way of life of the good steward Jesus paints a picture of the impact of the choices already made. It’s a picture of life focused on who God is, what God can do and what God will do. He says don’t worry because worry doesn’t change a thing.
What we know of course is that if all our treasure in earthly based, if all our self-esteem is wrapped up in how others see us, where we are in the pecking order of life. Then worry and anxiety will follow us around.

We worry about what we will eat, what we will drink and what we will wear. But the wise steward has his or her focus elsewhere. Rather than the earthly things, their focus is on the kingdom of God.

This doesn’t mean that they do not think about the present, it’s not time-bound. It’s not eternity versus the present that is as stake here, it’s the kingdom of God. And Jesus, don’t forget, has already declared that the kingdom is here, in some measure the kingdom of God is a present reality. He even taught his disciples to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I think this means that to focus on the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of this world is to focus on what God is doing and wanting to do among us and through us. It’s about those passions that he wants us to share for justice and mercy. It’s about the good news he wants us to share and to be and we seek to walk humbly with him. Living examples of God’s normality for the world.

This alternative world-view is rooted in the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us all in 1Cor.4 that we, like Paul himself are charged with a responsibility to live out and steward this gospel.

Sadly the good news is not perceived that way in the world. In a recent survey of 16-29 year olds in America, the following assessments of what Christianity was about were made: 

• 91% said antihomosexual
  
• 87% said judgmental
  
• 85% said hypocritical
  
• 78% said old-fashioned
  
• 75% said too involved in politics
  
• 72% said out of touch with reality
  
• 70% said insensitive to others
  
• 68% said boring
  
• 64% said not accepting of other faiths
  
• 61% said confusing
  

Apparently we need to work on our stewarding of the good news.

Conclusion

The teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6 is very relevant tour day. With it’s rampant consumerism, it’s easy to see how we can be sucked into a pattern of life which does not focus on God’s kingdom. We get caught up in the message of our modern world that there are just too many things without which our lives are hardly worth living.

Jesus says to us, “Put this consumerism on one side. you can’t serve the god of get and keep and the God of grace and hope, of generosity and mercy and justice.

The good steward will care for those around him, will care for her environment and will care about the resources that are available and should be shared among all people. When we get locked into the world of consuming we become greedy and selfish.

God, by contrast, calls us to focus elsewhere, to live unselfishly, generously and graciously.
To be careful, to steward things well, so that no one is deprived of the grace of God.

We Believe in the Power of Prayer

I’ve often wondered how many prayers are recorded in the Bible. I’ve sometimes thought it would make a wonderful study to go through the Bible and not only count them but study them. Maybe I’ll do that one year, but until then I’m pleased to be able to tell you that someone else has done it too and he counted 650 prayers in the Bible and 450 recorded answers. I haven’t read the book, and so I don’t know what he counted as a prayer and what he counted as an answer, but at least I now have an answer to me question!

Our theme today is We believe in the power of prayer.

In order to believe in the power of prayer, you first have to believe in the power of God to answer prayer.

Before we look at the question of the power of prayer, we must answer two vital questions:

• Why do we pray? 
  
• Why is prayer important?
  

For many people, prayer is a last resort in a crisis. Something somewhere deep inside of them calls them to pray in those darkest moments. I believe that this call comes from our deep need to connect with the God who created us. We may not understand it, we may even believe it, but it happens.

For others is a matter of duty, a matter of ritual. Sometimes this is a positive thing, others times less so. Praying the same prayers in adulthood that you prayed as a child is surely a sign that growth has been held back for some reason or another.

And then there are those who pray because it’s the most natural, compelling and satisfying thing they do. To bring all their concerns, worries, joys and desires to the God who loves them is purpose enough for their prayer life. As they pray they record wonderful answers and can see the hand of God moving in and through all that they do.

This is surely not only a great reason to pray, but also a great expression of the importance of prayer.

Prayer, powerful prayer is prayer that changes me as much as it changes things around me. Powerful prayer deepens my knowledge of God not just my knowledge about God. And none of us would surely argue with our desperate need to know God better.

Prayer is also important because some things can only be changed through prayer. Some great act of self-control won’t do it, or some great act of personal sacrifice won’t be enough. Sometimes only a miraculous answer to prayer from the God who can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine as Paul puts it, can solve the problem, answer the need or close the gap.

The simple truth is this: God’s power is released through and in the lives of those who pray.

God’s power can change circumstances and relationships. It can help us face life’s daily struggles. It can heal psychological and physical problems, remove marriage obstructions, meet financial needs–in fact, it can handle any kind of difficulty, dilemma or discouragement.

Too busy not to Pray Bill Hybels

A pattern for prayer

In Matthew 6 Jesus offers us a pattern for prayer and some principles for prayer.

The principles

Pray in secret. Jesus uses the example of the man who stands on the street corners to pray. His prayers are probably clever and articulate. They are the prayers of a proud man, not a humble person.

Jesus says pray in secret not because prayer is not meant to be done in public but that it’s not meant to done to impress anyone. Prayer is about you and God, not about you and the crowd of people around you. Even when we pray together in church or in a small group, we should be praying in the secret place.

Pray sincerely. One of the most crucial things we need to learn about prayer is simply this: be honest with God. God loves an honest prayer. Remember the story Jesus told about the Pharisee and the sinner who both prayed? It was the honesty of the sinner that brought justification through prayer and the grace of God.

Don’t try and muster up faith, express your prayers in the context of your faith as it is. If you’re unsure of your motives in prayer, tell God you’re unsure and trust that he will take you in the right direction. To say” Lord if it is your will” is not a cop out for those who lack faith, but an expression of our inability to have 20/20 vision when it comes to prayer. My favourite expression is to say to God, “This is the desire of my heart, if it’s wrong change my heart.”

Pray specifically. Sometimes we take this to mean pray for a red bicycle with 26” wheels and those little things in the spokes that make a noise when they go round.
Well that’s a pretty specific prayer, but praying specifically doesn't always mean giving an exact description. If we go back to the pattern Jesus gives us in Matt.6 we see that specific prayer is focused prayer.

• Honours appropriately
  
• Worships authentically
  
• Submits willingly
  
• Asks clearly
  
• Confesses openly
  
• Seeks protection humbly
  

The challenge of prayer is to abandon self-reliance, autonomy and selfish choices.

Understanding how God answers prayer

In Too Busy, Bill Hybles uses a simple three word explanation of how God answers prayer: 

• Go
• Slow
• No
  

How to improve our prayer lives?

Time: If prayer is ever going to be more than something you squeeze into your schedule you will have to work out how to set aside sufficient time to pray. You alone can answer the question as to whether 10 minutes a day is more valuable to building your prayer life than an hour a week.

Focus: On your relationship with God more than getting answers to your prayers. Answers are good, answers encourage, but if your relationship with God is not growing, if you are not changing then I;d suggest there is something wrong with your prayer life. Prayer is an intimate connection between you and God. That should change you.

Content: Think about what you are praying. Draw up a plan, follow a pattern. You can use the pattern of Matt.6, you can uses the ACTS pattern. As you read through the Bible, make a note of those verses that encourage you to pray and what to pray. Recently in my reading I found this verse in 1Tim.

First of all I urge you to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.

That’s impacted how I pray for people and who I pray for in recent weeks.

Record:Write it down. Simply record your prayers and record answers too. I’m not so good at this, but I do, form time to time, write my prayer down.

Conclusion

When we pray remarkable things happen. We change, circumstances change, people change. Not because we pray, but because God responds. He’s not a puppet under our control, tug his strings correctly and he dances to our tune. No, prayer is what aligns us with him, with his purposes, with his plans. 

Yes there are times when God says no, there are times when he doesn’t appear to answer or even hear us. But at those times we need to remember that he hears all our prayers. What we need is the patience to wait and listen and learn.

We Believe in Radical Discipleship

What does it mean to be radical? How would you define it?

The problem with being radical is that it’s become a by-word for fanatic, for terrorist for something quite frankly to which we should not aspire. But Jesus called the people who follow him to do so in radical change of lifestyle. Radical would have been the best way to describe the life of the followers of Jesus in the early church. It’s unconventional, maverick and counter-cultural.

Is that still true today? Does Jesus continue to call people to follow him in radical discipleship? And if so, what will it look like and how do we live it?

Keys to a radical lifestyle

You might think that when we talk about radical discipleship we’re going to talk about how to read you Bible more often, more fully and more deeply. You might think we’re going to talk about how to develop a more fulfilling prayer life or a more active evangelistic life.
But we’re not. Important as those things are, Bible reading, prayer, fellowship, mission, they are not what makes us radical. What makes us radical is the pattern we follow, the pattern of Jesus.

Key characteristics

#1 Christ-centred

A Christ-centred life is a connected life. Jesus said, "I am the vine you are the branches. Every branch that remains in me bears fruit..."

A Christ-centred life never asks God to bless its plan, rather it asks what are God’s plan and what part can I play in the fulfilment of his purposes? We ask a simple question: "Lord, what are you doing and how can help?"

#2 Whole-hearted

No other gods but me; Love the Lord your God with all your...

A whole-hearted, Christ-centred life is a surrendered life. Jesus spoke about carrying a cross and dying to self. The alternative to whole-hearted is the half-hearted, lukewarm Christianity against which Jesus speaks in Revelation

#3 It’s a faithful life

Radical discipleship means not giving up when things get tough. We do not stop worshipping God, we do not stop praying to God, we do not stop meeting with others, we do no stop seeking God just because problems come.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: How come Christ-followers are quick to give up on prayer when things are going badly and yet those who do not profess to follow Christ are among the first to start praying when things are going badly.

#4 Spirit inspired risk oriented

Only God’s agenda matters. The radical follower of Jesus Christ echoes the words of Isaiah the prophet by saying simply: Here am I, send me.

The big question of course is: How do you know it’s from God? I wish I had a simple answer.
In the end only time will tell. If it’s from God it will last, it will produce fruit, kingdom fruit. But the time frame might not match our expectations and the fruit might not be what we expect.

How is it expressed?

This is not an exhaustive or comprehensive list, but I believe that a radical life of discipleship will be expressed through:

Unconditional acceptance of the people Jesus misses most

Willingness to fail. The radical disciple gets out of the boat. He or she will have stories to tell their grandchildren about the amazing things that they have seen God do with the ounce of faith they offered him.

Generosity towards others

Grace-filled

Radical discipleship is not about our ability to tick the right boxes, it’s about our decision to abandon ourselves to the purposes of God. Radical discipleship settles for nothing less than 100% commitment. It is not satisfied with less and will do all it can to raise the standard and live the life. It is not into self-recriminations but accepts failure as part of the journey. Radical discipleship is relentless in its pursuit of God.

World-changers

I think we all know that it is through these kinds of disciples–Christ-centred, whole-hearted, faithful, Spirit inspired–that God will work his purposes in our world. If we want to be world changers, if we want to influence our communities for Christ, then this is the pattern of discipleship to which we need to aspire.

How do we respond?

Two ways:

First, with a sense of failure and defeat. We say yes to the idea of radical discipleship but we say we’re not up to the call. We realise we haven’t lived like that and every time we try we fail. So we give u and settle for mediocrity.

Second, with a sense of hope. We still acknowledge that we fall a long way short of the life of a fully devoted follower of Jesus, but we know that by the grace of God we can get up and get going once again.

I am what I am, but I am not all that I can be.

How do we get there?

So how do we become Christ-Centred disciples, radical disciples? It’s not easy! There are no instant fixes, quick solutions or fast track training programmes. It is a life-time’s work.

Some basic principles:

#1 Check your pulse. If you have a pulse, then you are still alive and therefore have the chance to start again!

#2 Check your position. I use four things normally when I go out for a walk. I use a map, a compass, my gps and my eyes. The map tells me where I should be and where I should be heading. The compass helps me orientate myself according to what I see on the map. The GPS helps me get an accurate fix on where I actually am. And I use my eyes to see the reality of my situation in the real world around me.

#3 Check your purpose. We said earlier that the radical disciple has no other agenda except the agenda of God. There are times when we kid ourselves into seeing our agenda as God’s agenda. But I believe that if we practice the principles of radical discipleship we will become more and more aligned with the purposes of God.

#4 Do it daily

Conclusion

If Paul is right when he declares that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do, then tell me why we should should ever settle for anything less?

We Believe in the Gospel

It seems a little odd to have to make such an obvious statement as “we believe in the gospel”. It’s as taken for read as “We believe in God”. We are, after all, an evangelical church with an evangelical statement of faith. But it’s one thing to say that we believe it and another to say and act on the basis of what it is we believe.

Maybe we should be asking what it is that we believe about the gospel.

For example do we simply believe the gospel as a series of propositions about our faith. A series of statements that best fit our understanding of where we stand before God. A sort multiple choice questionnaire like the ones the market research people do... "On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is strongly agree and 5 is strongly disagree. Please rate the following statements about your faith…"

Before we look at what we believe about the gospel, let me ask a question: What first drew you to Jesus? What was the one big question you had that demanded an answer?

I had a big question: Who gives meaning to my life?

Maybe Nicodemus had a big question. "Are you really from God?" From the answer Jesus gives to Nicodemus’ first statement and his then question would imply that the gospel is a radical rethinking of the relationship between God and man, not only for a religious man like a Pharisee.

But the gospel, the good news, is not about having all the answers to all the questions. Foe many years we’ve taught ourselves that in order to prepare properly to share the gospel with another person, we must first learn a series of answers. But times have changed. The questions we may have had 30, 20 or just 10 years ago are not necessarily the questions being asked today.

In the message of Jesus Christ we have the one answer to the one question. The question of reconciliation with the God who made us and who loves us. The only problem is that is not the question with which many of our friends begin.

Douglas Coupland, a Canadian author who first used the term ‘Generation X’ to describe the children of the 1980s articulates the question being asked like this:

Now–here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God–that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I am no longer capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me to love, as I seem beyond being able to love.

The point is this: We believe in the gospel as a message of forgiveness and reconciliation, as the answer to the most fundamental questions of life. We believe in the gospel as the message of eternal security. But what if our friends and neighbours aren’t looking for forgiveness? What if they aren’t interested in eternal security? What if their starting point is a search for a life that makes sense of terrorist threats and crashing markets? What if they simply want to learn how to love, to give, to be kind, to live a deeper life? What does our gospel have to say to the those questions?

What do we believe?

When we say: We believe in the gospel, what do we mean?

The gospel as truth
The gospel as power
The power to save
The power to change lives: 

The great evangelist H.A. Ironside was interrupted one time by the shouts of an atheist. The atheist yelled, "There is no God! Jesus is a myth!" and finally, "I challenge you to a debate!"
Ironside responded, "I accept your challenge, sir! But on one condition. When you come, bring with you ten men and women whose lives have been changed for the better by the message of atheism. Bring former prostitutes and criminals whose lives have been changed, who are now moral and responsible individuals. Bring outcasts who had no hope and have them tell us how becoming atheists has lifted them out of the pit!
"And sir," he concluded, "if you can find ten such men and woman, I will be happy to debate you. And when I come, I will gladly bring with me two hundred men and women from this very city whose lives have been transformed in just those ways by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Ironside knew that atheism doesn't change lives. Jesus changes lives.

The gospel is “good news”. And the good news is that the kingdom of God has broken into history in the powerful person, ministry and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And lives are changed forever as a result of an encounter with him.

What answers does it provide?

Perhaps one of the most crucial things we need to demonstrate is that faith actually works. That a lifestyle based upon the good news of Jesus Christ actually works in practice. That it makes us better people, kinder people, caring people.

The crucial factor in persuading someone to believe [is to] …awaken a desire for God in them.
The Provocative Church

...our lives need to become increasingly aligned with the example of Jesus... It means, though, increasingly becoming people of justice, kindness, mercy, strength, hope, grace, generosity, and hospitality. (64) Michael Frost Exiles

What would a gospel church look like, what does a gospel lifestyle look like?

Missional, incarnational, grace-filled

The gospel impacts our eternal destiny, but how does it affect our daily lives?

• Live a life worthy of the calling you have received
  
• You attitude should be like that of Jesus... who humbled himself
  
• The gospel as counter-culture
  
• The gospel as subversive
  
• The gospel is Christ first method second
  

How does what we believe impact the questions people may be asking?

Conclusion

What believe about the gospel must affect how we live among the community in which we find ourselves. It cannot remain a series of bland statements to which we simply give intellectual assent.

The gospel must become a way of life, we must once again become a people of the way and not just a people of the book.

We believe in the God who loves the world he made

I believe in God the creator. I believe that if he so chose, he could simply have spoken the universe into existence with a single breath. I believe that God is greater than the universe he made and it is he who holds it together.

And I love science.

From a very early age I was interested in how things worked and why things worked. I wanted to know what made the world turn and if it was true that the water goes down the plug-hole the other way in the southern hemisphere (the answer is that it doesn’t, at least not because of gravitational effects).

When I was 8 or 9 I got my first chemistry set and proceeded to perform experiments, although my sisters were reluctant to act as lab technicians for my work. I suspect my chances of a Noble prize were seriously undermined by their lack of faith in my scientific genius. At school I was in my element, so-to-speak, when I was in a chemistry or biology lab. I loved dissection and I loved mixing chemicals.

At university I studied environmental science and chemistry.

When people say that it’s hard for a scientist to believe in creation, I wonder why it’s so hard. It has never conflicted with my view of science.

So what about Genesis chapter 1?

#1 Don’t ask the wrong question

Genesis 1 is not a scientific paper looking at first origins. It is not a faith competitor for Darwin. It never has been. Although Genesis 1 describes a ‘how’, ‘How’ is not the focus.

The culture in which Genesis 1 was written was full of stories of the chaos of the primeval universe. Of good fighting evil, of gods battling with each other for supremacy. Earth and humanity were, according to many of these stories, the result of the battle.

Then along comes the writer of Genesis and we see something new.

#1 A new perspective

1. In the beginning God

Genesis begins with a profound statement: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The implication is this: Before God created anything there was nothing. In the beginning God.  No battles, no minor deities fighting it out in the cosmos, nothing. And from that nothing, the writer tells us, God made everything. The universe, the solar system, the planets, the world in which we live find their beginnings in the creative plans and purposes of God.

2. Order: … and there was evening and morning

The second point the writer wants us to notice is that God’s creative work was an orderly work. This is one of the key reasons  I think that we have a timetable. Later in Israel’s history, the orderliness of creation would be one of the reasons why taking a rest day once a week was enshrined in their legal system. 

And this orderly creation by an orderly God pays attention to the detail. As the story unfolds it become clear that God is concerned with all he makes. Nothing is done by chance, everything is done with purpose.

3. And it was good

The third thing to notice today is that when God made something he made a good job of it.
As each day’s work comes to completion there is the simple declaration that God saw what he had made and it was good. As one writer once put it: God does not make junk.

#2 God so loved the world

If we fast-forward to some time in the first century we’ll find an old man living in exile on a small island. There is nothing particularly remarkable about this old man. To some he probably appears a little odd even crazy as he describes visions of future events. But this old man has a remarkable tale to tell because he was one of the 3 people closest to Jesus.  When he wrote his version of the events surrounding the life and work of Jesus he began his story this way:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…Through him all things were made.

This, John tells us, is Jesus. And the reason Jesus came was because God so loved the world.
It is in John 3 that we read the words that remind us that the God who began it all continues to care for the world he made and people who live in it.  He cares so much that he was willing to send his Son who was in turn willing to come, to live and to die that we might know the God who began it all.

Conclusion

Genesis chapter 1 introduces us to the God who loves us, the God who created the world in which we live and who, through his Son, has demonstrated the extent of his love.

Now you can ask about evolution and you can ask about creation, but maybe the better question is this: If God will go to this extent to create a world for you, how much must he love you?

We Believe in the Mission

We have a very simple mission statement: To know God and to make God known. Not very original but it does the job. It describes out mission, but here’s the question. Do we get it? What does it mean?

Acts 13 is a defining moment in the life of the Early Church. I doubt very much that any member of Central Baptist Antioch (it must have been a Baptist church mustn't it?) thought of it as a defining moment, but defining it was.

A predominately Gentile church was about to commission to Jewish Christians to set out on a regional mission. It’s as if a small part of the emerging church has suddenly got it and is about to get on with it! 

Mission is about to get a whole lot more entertaining.

God says to this fledgling church take you two most senior leaders, your strongest connection to the church in Jerusalem, and send them on a journey. Unlike Philip this was not a journey predicated on the miraculous ability of God to move them from one place to another or persecution. Unlike Peter this was not a one off journey defined in clear terms prior to the guides arriving.

But this was still God working out his purposes, calling his church to action in his mission.
Today, out them is mission, and we’re going to explore what we mean by mission and what mission means for the way we live.

John Stott once said that mission was everything the church did. For some, this definition is way too broad. It allows everything to be declared a missionary activity and draws attention away from the central thrust of mission–evangelism.

On the other hand, if you define mission only in terms of evangelism are we not in danger of reducing mission down to a verbal presentation of truth, a focus on the eternal destiny of the individual, with no room for for anything else.

Perhaps what we need is to understand mission more in the context of the Gospel story than in the context of church history.

Let me explain.

Defining Mission

I believe there are two fundamental mistakes we make when we start trying to define mission. The first is to define mission in the context of the church. When we do this we end up asking questions about how we can people into church. How we can connect them with what we do, what we believe and how we live. Start with the church and almost inevitably the mission will get lost.

The best example I know of this approach came quite recently with the Hope initiative in town. For some, the first question was not “How can we reach and serve the most number of people who are from God?” The first question was:” What’s our basis of faith?”

The second error is to define mission in the context of what’s wrong with the world. When we fall into this trap we find ourselves standing in judgement over our neighbours.  Mission becomes focussed on righting wrongs and defining acceptable behaviour. Whilst it’s important to challenge policies and laws, to write to MPs and ask tough questions, our mission is not a quest to get Christian values enshrined in the constitution of the land but to populate heaven with people who have reconnected with the God who loves them.

So how do we define mission, where do we begin?

The only place to begin if we want to define mission correctly is to begin with Jesus. What we believe about Jesus has to be the basis for what we believe about mission and interestingly, what we believe about mission will lead us in the end to better understand what we believe about the church.

Think if it this way: What we believe about Jesus determines our what believe about how we live in the world (our mission), our mission determines our how we live as a community of faith (worship). Technically: Christology determines missiology, and missiology determines ecclesiology.

So, when we launch a celebration in Shortstown, when we begin a housegroup in the Wixams, it will be with the tag line: It’s not about coming to church, it’s about coming to life.

How did Jesus do mission?

If Jesus is the defining criteria for our understanding of mission, then what do we know about how he did mission?

Jesus did mission relationally

He invited followers,
he lived among them,
he entered their world,our world.
He committed himself to them.

Jesus did mission incarnationally

The good news was not just about Jesus, it was Jesus.

When he said the kingdom of God was near, it was no mere philosophical proposition, it was a bold statement of the presence of God made flesh among them. God had drawn near, and he still does. In the person of Jesus Christ the holiness of God stood next to the unholiness of humanity and the only who died as a result was the holy one himself.

The Old Testament people feared such an encounter. At Sinai they begged God to stay clear of them, Jacob, who wrestled with God declared with amazement that he had seen God face to face and lived to tell the story. Isaiah declares himself ruined as he sees a vision of God Almighty, high and lifted up.

But when Jesus came, he came humbly, he came as a servant, he came as one who was powerless. He drew near and threw his arms around saint and sinner alike.

This narrative of the God who walks among men is the story in which we find ourselves. This is the defining strategy for the mission of God’s people, to live among the missing in order that some, even all, might be found.

Living missionally

If Jesus defines our mission, then we have a few questions to ask. First we can ask what we truly believe about mission and our part in it. Second we can ask what it means to live our lives in the light of this mission. Thirdly we can ask to who are we sent? This third question arises out of the very nature of our missional calling to Go and make disciples

What do we believe about mission?

I’m not asking about the definition, we’ve already established the basis for that. I’m asking what we believe about our role.

Do we believe the the mission is urgent?
De we believe it is a priority?
Do we believe we have a part to play in it?
Do we believe it is primarily someone else’s responsibility?

What is a missional life?

A missional life is: (I think these three terms are from Ed Stetzer)

Incarnational: we live the story. The gospel is not just something we believe, it’s the way we live.

Indigenous: In other words, we live among the people we are trying to reach. We don’t go somewhere to do mission, we live somewhere to be the mission, to live the story. It’s another way of saying relational.

Intentional: We live on purpose and with purpose. We are a sent people. We may not have been prayed over, set apart by the Holy Spirit to travel throughout Asia, but we are all a sent people.

The challenge we face is not to do mission but to live missionally.

To whom are we sent?

Of course we can say simply that we are sent into the world. Not to make it a better place but to live out the good news story so that others might see and choose to live it too.
But we’re also aware that God has placed and is placing opportunities, clear opportunities before us.

Perhaps the credit crunch will give us a little more time to get ready, but houses are being built, people are moving in and we cannot stand by and do nothing.

We see the communities in which we already live and know that we cannot wait for someone else to come along and engage for us, we have to answer God’s call to be the mission.
Whether your heart burns for Cotton End, for Shortstown, for Wilstead or for Wixams, there is an opportunity for all of us to share the journey together.

Conclusion

I believe God has called us to a missional life. I believe will all my heart that the church exists primarily to serve the purposes of the kingdom of God through engaging in mission. We are here for the benefit of those who are yet to believe.

And if we get it, then for the sake of the kingdom, let’s get on with it.