The joy of the Lord can be your strength.
Nehemiah and the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and the gates of the city. By chapter 7 of Nehemiah, there is a recording of all the people who had returned to Jerusalem for the rebuilding.
Nehemiah 7:66-67
Nehemiah knew that Ezra was the one who would keep the people on track with the Word of God.
Nehemiah 8:1
The walls and gates had been finished. Now Ezra was coming forward and reading from the law of God.
Acts 2:44
Acts 2:46
Acts 4:24
Acts 4:32
This whole project had pulled everyone together. Now the work had been completed, and, as one man, they all grouped together to hear the reading of God’s law. They were of one accord and one mind: united.
I think God, in this church, is formulating our hearts together as one man, with one accord. Over this year it will be a progression of everyone, young and old, coming together more and more to worship and praise God and study his word. More will come to this church and be changed. You will share what is happening. We’re all inviduals and we’re all different, but our common denominator is Jesus Christ.
Nehemiah must have looked around that city and seen all the walls and gates completed. And the people inside the city and in the surrounding area knew that God had done it.
Nehemiah 8:1-3
Ephesians 5:26-27
Here there was complete freedom to hear God’s word and proclaim it.
Nehemiah 8:4-8
They realised where their foundation was. This was the law of the God who they served. He was the reason for their existence, as he is the reason for ours.
Nehemiah 8:9-13
The joy of the Lord is your strength. But what exactly does that mean?
John 15:11
John 16:17-22
There’s a joy in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ that no man can take from you. You accept and realise that he is Lord of your life. You accept and realise that you have been forgiven your sin. And you accept and realise that the power of sin is broken in your life. That joy, no one can take from you.
John 16:22-24
The risen saviour was making it quite clear that you need to ask in that day, and Father will answer, that their joy might be full. What have you prayed to God about this week? Keeping track about what you’re praying for, because then you can look back and see God answering, and record it. What’s on your mind? What are you asking God for?
James 1:1-8
James 1:2
Does that mean you rejoice in disaster?
The joy of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is that he wants you and me, prompted by his Holy Spirit, to pray to him. He wants us to ask him about things. He wants to provide that answer to your prayer so that your joy may be full. If you are a Christian, you want to live your life to please God. Whatever pressure, trial or circumstance of life, your joy will be full when you bring everything to God in prayer.
Your joy is to be full when you share everything with your heavenly father.
The progression of the church this year will be an enhancement of you and I learning how to pray. We need to recognise when God brings the answer. For some, it’s as if you’ve been in a situation that you’ve never faced before.
James 1:5
Nehemiah 8:10-19
In Chapter 9 they recount the history of how they got there.
Nehemiah 9:1-3
Then there is a recounting of how, from Abraham onwards, they had got to this place.
Nehemiah 9:32-38
They had heard the word of the law for a whole week. They were there for a purpose and they confessed their sins and made a covenant with God.
In Chapter 10 he lists the names of those who sealed according to that law.
Nehemiah 10:29-31
Nehemiah 10:39
Nehemiah 11:1-2
Nehemiah 12:26
Friday 27 February 2009
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Acts (Part 3 of 4) - Evangelism
I want to talk about one particular word – kerygma. Then we’ll look at Paul’s method of evangelism, and then end up with the nature of the early church.
Kerygma is the Greek word for proclamation, announcement, preaching. There are eleven sermons in the Acts of the Apostles.
All this goes back to the time before the New Testament, where we have a herald making proclamations.
2 Chronicles 20:3
There was an urgency here.
Then there were proclamations by foreign kings – e.g. Daniel. There were proclamations through the kings of Israel, through the prophets :-
Joel 1:14
There was a proclamation, a crying out, to grab people’s attention. When Jesus stood up proclaiming the fulfilment of the prophecy from Isaiah 61, this is what He was doing.
Lk 4:16-22
What happens with the kerygma in Acts – because Acts is the Acts of the Holy Spirit who in turn was the power to bring Christ to the people ... so when Jesus stood up and said those words, He became the proclamation. It wasn’t like 2 Chronicles where Jehoshaphat called for an action of the people. When Jesus stood up, He was the embodiment of the proclamation He was making. He was the word. So when it comes to the kerygma of Jesus and what happens in Acts, you have that coming together. You are the message. There is a power, an authority with the work of the Holy Spirit in an individual.
What does this mean in the early church?
One definition says kerygma has come to denote the irreducible essence of Christian preaching – irreducible because the preacher is the message.
In Acts there is a movement away from proclaiming the kingdom of God, and in its place is the preaching of Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:23
1 Corinthians 15:12
2 Corinthians 1:19
He is the exalted one. Because of His death Jesus is the kingdom. This is the revolutionary message of John 15 – I am the vine.
Acts 1:8
This is the main verse of Acts. There was the ripple effect from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria. The kerygma is “ye shall be witnesses unto me.” So when you’re at work and you witness to a friend, you’re not talking about a philosophy or a manner of life – it’s Jesus Christ, the exalted king, Christ crucified.
It’s a huge transition from something which would happen to the whole nation and to being witnesses of Jesus Christ and who He is. You and I are involved with that.
The content was Jesus Himself. As for the manner ...
1. The preaching to mainly Jewish audiences had a particularly political quality.
Mere announcement wasn’t enough. There was argument, testimony, pleading, proving.
Acts 9:22
He didn’t prove an idea. He proved that Jesus Christ was who He claimed.
Acts 9:29
He was standing for what he believed. There was a way of getting involved with the argument.
Acts 17:2-3
Three weeks he was reasoning with them. It was all to do with Jesus and His being Christ.
Acts 18:4-5
Acts 19:8-9
Acts 28:23
You might say that was just Paul. That was his particular ability. But I’ve been very conscious of late of how we need to be prepared to stand for the truth – that Jesus came into this world to save sinners, and He rose from the dead for a reason. We’re not here to outline a philosophy of life which simply differs from other religions. We’re talking about God and Jesus Christ. What are the arguments for saying that Jesus Christ rose from the dead? What is the truth about Him? In Acts, everything revolves around Jesus Christ and his crucifixion and resurrection. The transition to Jesus Christ has happened, and our witness has to revolve around that. It’s something we can proclaim boldly because the Holy Spirit brings that boldness.
2. It was the divine commission.
Rom 10:15
One commentator says that without a commission, the preaching of Christ is only propaganda. In Luke 4, they were astonished at Jesus’s teaching when He spoke. He was anointed to preach. There’s something about Acts. It pulsates with life. There’s a surge going forward – Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the world. What’s your witness like? Are you ready to give an answer for the faith which is in you?
The Apostles were aware of their divine commission.
Acts 10:42 Peter
Acts 9:15 Paul
1 Corinthians 9:16-17
Was this commission just for the Apostles, or is it for you and me? Are we meant to witness, to share our faith, to open our mouths? Yes, yes, yes. Spurgeon said, “Share the Gospel, and if you have to, open your mouth.”
They spoke with authority. The Jewish leaders recognised that they had been with Jesus. At Antioch, a great many were added, because of the authority of Barnabas.
Acts 11:24
“The demonstration of the spirit is when as the minister of the word so behaves himself that all – even ignorant persons and unbelievers – may judge that it is not so much he that speaketh but the spirit of God.” Puritan quote.
Because it was full of life, there was opposition. There was no neutral zone where the kerygma landed with no reaction. Where there is life, there’s reaction. You either hate it or you’re drawn towards it. The opposition was often expressed in terms of opposition to the messenger.
3. The transparency of the message and its motive.
1 Corinthians 1:17-18
Clarity is the keynote. And the one who gives the message aims to please God, not man. When you witness, the aim is not to make a friend, but to share the truth of Jesus Christ. We’re not trying to make ourselves popular, but to be true to the one who has commissioned us.
Acts 9:23-25 Damascus
Acts 17:5-6 Thessalonica
You couldn’t be middle of the road. You either rejoiced or sought to suppress it. Let’s see a favourable reaction :-
Acts 8:5-8
See the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing truth to those listening. He’s a person and speaks to people and acts, not as a blind force but as the spirit of truth.
Thomas Charles: “It’s easy and delightful to preach the Gospel in these days. Beams of divine light accompany every truth delivered ...”
That’s what the Holy Spirit does. If the Holy Spirit anoints a preacher, if the preacher is in the centre of God’s truth, if the Holy Spirit is the force behind the proclamation of who Jesus Christ is, it is an irresistible combination.
What I want here, whoever is preaching here is the truth proclaimed, being an open vessel for the Holy Spirit to speak the living word.
Some people have analysed the kerygma of the apostolic church into six elements. They have said this is the traditional format of how you would proclaim the Gospel.
1. There’s an age of fulfilment.
2. This has taken place through the ministry of Jesus.
3. In view of the resurrection, He has been exalted.
4. The Holy Spirit in the church is the sign of His power and glory.
5. This age will reach its consummation when Jesus Christ returns.
6. An appeal is made for repentance.
Alternatively it can be expressed in three parts:
1. The proclamation of the death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ seen as the fulfilment of prophecy.
2. The resultant evaluation of Jesus as Lord and Christ.
3. A summons to repent and receive forgiveness of sins.
If you look at the majority of sermons in Acts, there is that format. The kerygma isn’t a template, but it results in the power of the Holy Spirit transmitting the power of Jesus Christ.
1. The proclamation of the death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ seen as the fulfilment of prophecy.
His death was not accidental, but according to a plan.
Acts 2:23
The Jews denied the holy and righteous one and chose a murderer.
Acts 3:13-14
They set at nought the stone which became the head of the corner.
Acts 4:11
Acts 5:30
As for the resurrection, it’s found in every one of the early speeches in Acts – they had spoken to people who had witnessed that resurrection.
Acts 2:24
Since the resurrection was foretold it was impossible for death to hold Jesus Christ.
It was duly witnessed.
Acts 10:41
There is something about the human heart which can set itself against God. But here there is a life in the one saying the message – Jesus Christ inside. When you share with someone by the Holy Spirit, what will be communicated, with authority, is that life of Christ. We have to have the guts to speak the truth, and God by His Holy Spirit will outwork His purpose with that word. What we mustn’t do is be shy of speaking out for the truth.
I’m collecting articles about freedoms being removed from our society. I constantly thank God for the freedom we have. We need to be vigilant and speak up to preserve that freedom to be able to share the Gospel. Tonight, I don’t have to worry about state police coming in to close us down as we meet. But we need to be vigilant, and in sharing our faith, we need to lift up Jesus Christ and be open and sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit. We can’t just presume things will always be as they are. It’s becoming more and more significant.
2. The resultant evaluation of Jesus as Lord and Christ.
Acts 2:3
There’s personal relationship. There’s a wonderful array of titles which reflect the firm grasp of the early church community on this basic truth that Jesus Christ is the holy one – the righteousness one, the author of life, the stone, the judge of the living and the dead. His messiahship is recognised in titles such as prophet, servant, saviour. The resurrection vindicated Him.
2. The summons to repent
The kerygma was not a dispassionate recital of historical facts. It was the confrontation of man with the dilemma of having rejected the one God had exalted. Repentance was the only way, and the strongest incentive was the gracious offer of the forgiveness of sins.
It was said of Spurgeon that there was no more solemn place than the pulpit. In every sermon he stood toe to toe with the devil. Every convert was a jewel snatched from satan and presented to the Saviour. Spurgeon said we needed to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit. Without that there is nothing.
There is something topical now. If there is a right way to structure a church, we need to do it the right way. But equally we need to apply those principles to our situation. There is no set template. There are all sorts of variations to what should or should not be done. But there are principles.
Paul began talking about Jesus Christ in the synagogue. When it was rejected by the Jews, he turned to the Gentiles. He vocalised this approach.
He was very well versed in Jewish culture. So he started there and preached faithfully, but when they rejected him he moved on to the Gentiles. How long he remained in a location, was determined by opposition, by the meagre response of the Gentiles, or by a combination; and on one occasion, no reason is given why he went.
Generally he didn’t stay more than a few weeks or months. Ephesus was an exception, when he stayed for three years. He went where God wanted him to go. If the Holy Spirit, told him to go to a particular place, that was where he went.
When Paul moved on from these new churches (and there was no church building as we know it ... things were happening around the neighbourhood, around homes) ... when he left these churches, he had no person to leave with them. The Jews knew the Old Testament scriptures, and often the Gentiles knew God only from nature. So Paul left having chosen leaders. Often the basis of the choice isn’t clear. Sometimes it was self-evident. Sometimes is was by lot. Sometimes it may have been by vote. Paul appointed leaders to shepherd the flock in his absence. Often they were known as elders.
Acts 14:23
The ordaining of people as elders was probably by the laying on of hands and prayer. In 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus, you get the qualifications. You know the type of person, but not how they are appointed. But when Paul moved on the elders were left to shepherd the flock. And as time passed, others were appointed.
Titus 1:5
Acts 20:17
Luke doesn’t try to give a comprehensive account of Paul’s ministry. On each journey, he selects the events which best show the Gentiles’ acceptance and the Jews’ rejection of the message. Luke never gives details of a second visit to a church. The whole message is to do with the message going out.
The Jews rejected the message, but the Gentiles accepted it. This is confirmed by the Jews’ reaction in Rome.
Acts 28:25-31
It’s sad. Paul knew exactly about the Jewish tradition. He would have been pinpoint accurate in what he said. But the Jews rejected it.
The nature of the church
The church wasn’t a building. We’re talking about people. The word ecclesia is often used, which refers to the gathering of the citizens. The background to the New Testament use of the word is Jewish rather than Greek – the people of God in assembly.
Acts 5:11
The word became used for believers gathered in any given community.
Acts 13:1, Acts 18:22, Acts 20:17. Acts 9:31 uses the same word for the entire church.
Acts 9:31
The new people who made up the church were no longer equivalent to the nation of Israel. They were a new people, and the church was born on the day of Pentecost.
Transfer this to us. Something happens in Harwich, something else in Colchester. And slowly people are forming into groups with the one common denominator – faith in Jesus Christ. Their vertical relationship brought about the triangle, God, me and you. It was those fellowships were developing. Until the edict of Milan (313 AD), a church was not officially recognised and could own property.
The church grew without church buildings. Often they met in houses.
Acts 18:7
The house was next door to the synagogue. People met in a house. And we see the same elsewhere – e.g. Philippians 2, Colossians 4:15. Often there were conversions of a “man and all his house.” There was family, and there were homes where people met. As you look through these things, you can see that it was the fellowship which kept people together.
Acts 2:41-42
We will grow more and more into prayer.
The Apostles doctrine is not defined, but it probably consisted of a summary of His life,
Fellowship was the root idea of the early church.
“They were drawn to one another because they had together been drawn to Christ. Because they were partakers of Christ, they were partakes of one another. The term receives its distinctive colour because of the vertical dimension of fellowship with God ...”
If you look around this hall, are these people you would normally associate with? We’re all different social backgrounds. And yet I can link up with you as my brother completely. I’m 100% with you, and you with me.
It is the divine linking up with the divine in each of us and it overrides everything else. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
They often had meals together, because that was the way of fellowship in Greco-Roman society. Disfellowship meant not eating together. For a Jew and Gentile to sit at a common table indicated genuine acceptance.
We are all one.
Acts 2:44
Acts 2:46
Acts 4:24
Acts 4:32
That’s why this church will grow – because we are of one heart and one soul, and as we love one another and lift up Jesus Christ together, He will draw people to Himself.
Sunday 22 February 2009
Jesus the Word of God
Jesus came to show us the face of God. For all of us, God wants us to come to the place where we see Him face to face. But to do that, we need to put aside everything else – and in particular the baggage which so many of us have acquired along the way.
John 1:1-5
What does it mean when we call Jesus the Word? The word is something inside you and you want to express it to someone else. But when we call Jesus the Word, it goes way beyond the expression of a truth or idea. He is the expression of God – God Himself.
In these opening verses, John is shouting to us the fact that this Word is God. He is at pains to point out that the Word is God almighty. This is the word logos. The word had been around for hundreds of years. When the philosophers talked about the Word, they meant an impersonal force, the governing force of the cosmos. The Holy Spirit inspired John to say that the logos they philosophised about was God.
The philosophers could have retorted, “Call that impersonal force, God. That’s ok. But He’s still out there and we can’t get in touch with Him.” But in John 1:14, John drops in something earth-shattering – this God who you say can’t be known, took flesh and lived amongst us. This was God Himself, the God who created everything. In Him all things were created. Without Him, nothing was made.
John 1:14
Some people say the Word was a God. But the whole of these verses shout out the fact that this Word was God. When it says He was with God, it means He was face to face with God through all eternity. He was with God. All things were made by Him, because He was God. This is in striking similarly to Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Jehovah the Son was very evident in the creation of the heavens and the earth. The Word was truly God. Now John shouts again:
John 1:14
He was truly man as well.
Why did He have to become flesh? Why could God not reveal Himself without becoming flesh?
1 Timothy 6:15-16
That’s why we can’t come to God – He dwells in a glory we can’t approach to. We can’t live in that light. Only Jesus has seen the Father.
Philippians 2:5-7
“Made Himself of no reputation” – the word means He emptied Himself, of His glory, of His equality with God, His place in heaven. That was the only way that God could reveal Himself to us.
And when it says the Word became flesh, it doesn’t mean He stopped being what He was before. I could become something else and stop being what I was. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, and was no longer his wife. On the other hand, Lot became a father, and yet remained Lot. And this latter is the sense of the Word becoming flesh. He did not stop being God.
So we have a man who is truly God. He didn’t stop being God, but was also a man – one person, two natures.
John 17:4-5
He emptied Himself of that glory. It’s one of the most wonderful things in the Gospel. In the hymn by Charles Wesley, ‘And can it be’ there are wonderful truths about God’s love for us, how Jesus died to set us free:
At the beginning of the hymn, Charles Wesley has caught some of the awesomeness of what God has done. God took on Himself the form of a servant, and died: “And can it be, that I should gain, an interest in the Saviour’s blood…” It’s amazing that we can be touched by the blood of the Saviour who died for us! Christ died “for me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be!” Charles Wesley got so excited and he realised what God had done.
In Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. This is a litotes – it’s an understatement. There are several in the Scriptures. When Paul says he’s not ashamed of the Gospel, he’s saying he’s proud of it, it’s the most fantastic thing.
John says the darkness hated the light, killed Him, sent Him to the cross. The Bible says we were enemies of God.
How can the immortal die? Because the immortal took on immortality and came to earth to show the Father. Who can explore the plan of God. We can never understand it. The chief of all the angels cannot understand it. God didn’t die for them, but for you and me. They’ll never know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this fantastic love. This wonderful God emptied Himself and it found you and me.
Jesus is the light that lights every man who comes into the world. They all reject Him – but to as many who received Him, He gave power to become sons of God. There are some that light touches.
Don’t forget what God has done for us. Some Christians think God dealt with everything at Calvary, and that was it. But what about when I go wrong now and mess up? The blood of Jesus is still effective today in cleansing us from all sin.
Just as the Word was face to face with God through all eternity, so He wants to bring us into that same relationship, which the Son has enjoyed through all eternity. We can come into that relationship when we are cleansed in the blood.
God the Son is Jehovah – truly God as well as truly man. From the beginning of Creation, He has always been there to reveal the Father to us.
Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah had hoped for so much. Israel had been in the spiritual doldrums. The Word of God was not being preached or lived. They were at a low ebb. Then King Uzziah came to the throne, and Isaiah hoped for so much, but the King went astray, and he died a leper. And then we have these words in chapter 6. “I saw the Lord – He was high, sitting on a throne, and his train filled the temple, and the seraphim cried “Holy, holy”. Isaiah had a wonderful vision of Jehovah.
Here John quotes from Isaiah:
John 12:39-41
Who did Isaiah see? He was high and lifted up, it was Jesus. It says, “Isaiah saw Him.” So many times in the Old Testament, Jehovah the Son was evident.
We see John preparing the way of the Lord – Jesus. And it echoes Isaiah in the Old Testament – “Prepare ye the way of Jehovah.”
We all need to come to the realisation that it is God Himself we are dealing with – not mere man.
I wonder how the disciples felt, as bit by bit they began to realise this was more than just a mere man. Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.” They knew He was divine. And you might think they’d got it, but a few verses later, Peter starts to rebuke Him about going to Jerusalem. How can you do that to God?
At the moment we are talking about recognising God for who He is. In all our dealings, we need to know God is at work.
One nice story in John’s Gospel, is about when Jesus had to go through Samaria, because there was a Samaritan woman there, and the Almighty wanted to meet her. She had no idea she was about to come face to face with God. She knew what she was like. Her life was all wrong, and she knew it. We might be tempted to look at this story and think, if God could do it for her, He can do it for us – we’re not as bad as that. But we are – we’re just as bad!
More wonderful still, Jesus got there ahead of her and waited for her. We’re like ants on the face of the earth, and God knows each one of you intimately. God waited for the woman. Doesn’t it speak to you of His love for each one of us? He goes out of His way for each of us, waits until the time is right, and then speaks to us.
This woman had no idea who she was talking to. And as Christians we are often like that. You have no idea that it’s God who is doing something in your life. How do I know that you’ve lost sight of God sometimes? Because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t behave the way you do. If we really knew it was God we were dealing with, we wouldn’t behave the way we do. He’s the omnipotent God, and He’s the one who deals with us every day. But we all get side-tracked.
When we go through trials, God does answer – even if it takes longer than we’d like. He’s not going to let you down. When He speaks into our situation, we know, because everything changes – all our bad attitudes, doubts and scepticism melt away. The things which once seemed so important become pale.
I want to look at the story of Job. He went through things that probably we’ll never go through. He was an upright man, and bad things happened, just as sometimes they happen to you. Almost the whole story of Job is taken up with the arguments between him and his friends. The arguments are boring – they just go round and round!
Job is not a story about the devil. Nor do I think it’s about the integrity of Job. He was a man of integrity, but I don’t think that’s the main thrust.
Recall what had happened. He had boils, he was full of sores, he’d lost his family, his wealth, everything. But he never lost his commitment to God. And I hope that’s true of us. Even in my stupidity, I knew God hadn’t left me. I knew he had an answer somewhere. I just couldn’t find it. Job was a man who knew that whatever was happening, God was not against him.
Job 19:25-26
Face to face with God. That is God’s agenda for us. But Job didn’t know what was about to happen. He gets a bit silly, saying he wants to sit down with God and sort things out.
Job 23:3
He was an upright man, but he’d got distracted. He was looking in the wrong place, just as we do sometimes, and he’d said, “God, you seem a long way away.”
Job 31:40
Don’t get into that position when you declare, “That’s it God – I have nothing else to say to you.”
After all that verse, chapters 38-41 are God speaking. And this is wonderful.
Job 38:1-41:34
“OK,” says God, “Job – you think you know best.”
God goes on to ask Job about all the wonders of creation, and where Job was when God made it all. But He didn’t answer any of Job’s questions. He wasn’t interested. Some people who are not Christians would say He was a cruel God. But our ways and thoughts aren’t His. When we go through trials, we come out shining like burnished gold. God wasn’t interested in Job’s questions, just as He isn’t in ours.
Now we get a weak and humiliated Job – “I said things I should never have said.”
Job 42:1-5
Job didn’t necessarily see God face to face. But we’re talking about seeing God in all His glory and wisdom. Job was sorry for being so stupid. He got misled. But when God comes on the scene, everything changes.
In terms of today’s Christians, Job would be one of us. He knew God. But he still had to come to the place at the end of it, and admit he’d said things he shouldn’t have said and thought things he shouldn’t have thought.
I can say this to you because I’ve been through it myself. It may be that some of us have to come to God and admit that we thought our arguments were right, but He wasn’t interested.
Seeing God face to face: is that what you want? I know it is.
John 1:1-5
What does it mean when we call Jesus the Word? The word is something inside you and you want to express it to someone else. But when we call Jesus the Word, it goes way beyond the expression of a truth or idea. He is the expression of God – God Himself.
In these opening verses, John is shouting to us the fact that this Word is God. He is at pains to point out that the Word is God almighty. This is the word logos. The word had been around for hundreds of years. When the philosophers talked about the Word, they meant an impersonal force, the governing force of the cosmos. The Holy Spirit inspired John to say that the logos they philosophised about was God.
The philosophers could have retorted, “Call that impersonal force, God. That’s ok. But He’s still out there and we can’t get in touch with Him.” But in John 1:14, John drops in something earth-shattering – this God who you say can’t be known, took flesh and lived amongst us. This was God Himself, the God who created everything. In Him all things were created. Without Him, nothing was made.
John 1:14
Some people say the Word was a God. But the whole of these verses shout out the fact that this Word was God. When it says He was with God, it means He was face to face with God through all eternity. He was with God. All things were made by Him, because He was God. This is in striking similarly to Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Jehovah the Son was very evident in the creation of the heavens and the earth. The Word was truly God. Now John shouts again:
John 1:14
He was truly man as well.
Why did He have to become flesh? Why could God not reveal Himself without becoming flesh?
1 Timothy 6:15-16
That’s why we can’t come to God – He dwells in a glory we can’t approach to. We can’t live in that light. Only Jesus has seen the Father.
Philippians 2:5-7
“Made Himself of no reputation” – the word means He emptied Himself, of His glory, of His equality with God, His place in heaven. That was the only way that God could reveal Himself to us.
And when it says the Word became flesh, it doesn’t mean He stopped being what He was before. I could become something else and stop being what I was. Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt, and was no longer his wife. On the other hand, Lot became a father, and yet remained Lot. And this latter is the sense of the Word becoming flesh. He did not stop being God.
So we have a man who is truly God. He didn’t stop being God, but was also a man – one person, two natures.
John 17:4-5
He emptied Himself of that glory. It’s one of the most wonderful things in the Gospel. In the hymn by Charles Wesley, ‘And can it be’ there are wonderful truths about God’s love for us, how Jesus died to set us free:
At the beginning of the hymn, Charles Wesley has caught some of the awesomeness of what God has done. God took on Himself the form of a servant, and died: “And can it be, that I should gain, an interest in the Saviour’s blood…” It’s amazing that we can be touched by the blood of the Saviour who died for us! Christ died “for me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be!” Charles Wesley got so excited and he realised what God had done.
In Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. This is a litotes – it’s an understatement. There are several in the Scriptures. When Paul says he’s not ashamed of the Gospel, he’s saying he’s proud of it, it’s the most fantastic thing.
John says the darkness hated the light, killed Him, sent Him to the cross. The Bible says we were enemies of God.
How can the immortal die? Because the immortal took on immortality and came to earth to show the Father. Who can explore the plan of God. We can never understand it. The chief of all the angels cannot understand it. God didn’t die for them, but for you and me. They’ll never know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this fantastic love. This wonderful God emptied Himself and it found you and me.
Jesus is the light that lights every man who comes into the world. They all reject Him – but to as many who received Him, He gave power to become sons of God. There are some that light touches.
Don’t forget what God has done for us. Some Christians think God dealt with everything at Calvary, and that was it. But what about when I go wrong now and mess up? The blood of Jesus is still effective today in cleansing us from all sin.
Just as the Word was face to face with God through all eternity, so He wants to bring us into that same relationship, which the Son has enjoyed through all eternity. We can come into that relationship when we are cleansed in the blood.
God the Son is Jehovah – truly God as well as truly man. From the beginning of Creation, He has always been there to reveal the Father to us.
Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah had hoped for so much. Israel had been in the spiritual doldrums. The Word of God was not being preached or lived. They were at a low ebb. Then King Uzziah came to the throne, and Isaiah hoped for so much, but the King went astray, and he died a leper. And then we have these words in chapter 6. “I saw the Lord – He was high, sitting on a throne, and his train filled the temple, and the seraphim cried “Holy, holy”. Isaiah had a wonderful vision of Jehovah.
Here John quotes from Isaiah:
John 12:39-41
Who did Isaiah see? He was high and lifted up, it was Jesus. It says, “Isaiah saw Him.” So many times in the Old Testament, Jehovah the Son was evident.
We see John preparing the way of the Lord – Jesus. And it echoes Isaiah in the Old Testament – “Prepare ye the way of Jehovah.”
We all need to come to the realisation that it is God Himself we are dealing with – not mere man.
I wonder how the disciples felt, as bit by bit they began to realise this was more than just a mere man. Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.” They knew He was divine. And you might think they’d got it, but a few verses later, Peter starts to rebuke Him about going to Jerusalem. How can you do that to God?
At the moment we are talking about recognising God for who He is. In all our dealings, we need to know God is at work.
One nice story in John’s Gospel, is about when Jesus had to go through Samaria, because there was a Samaritan woman there, and the Almighty wanted to meet her. She had no idea she was about to come face to face with God. She knew what she was like. Her life was all wrong, and she knew it. We might be tempted to look at this story and think, if God could do it for her, He can do it for us – we’re not as bad as that. But we are – we’re just as bad!
More wonderful still, Jesus got there ahead of her and waited for her. We’re like ants on the face of the earth, and God knows each one of you intimately. God waited for the woman. Doesn’t it speak to you of His love for each one of us? He goes out of His way for each of us, waits until the time is right, and then speaks to us.
This woman had no idea who she was talking to. And as Christians we are often like that. You have no idea that it’s God who is doing something in your life. How do I know that you’ve lost sight of God sometimes? Because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t behave the way you do. If we really knew it was God we were dealing with, we wouldn’t behave the way we do. He’s the omnipotent God, and He’s the one who deals with us every day. But we all get side-tracked.
When we go through trials, God does answer – even if it takes longer than we’d like. He’s not going to let you down. When He speaks into our situation, we know, because everything changes – all our bad attitudes, doubts and scepticism melt away. The things which once seemed so important become pale.
I want to look at the story of Job. He went through things that probably we’ll never go through. He was an upright man, and bad things happened, just as sometimes they happen to you. Almost the whole story of Job is taken up with the arguments between him and his friends. The arguments are boring – they just go round and round!
Job is not a story about the devil. Nor do I think it’s about the integrity of Job. He was a man of integrity, but I don’t think that’s the main thrust.
Recall what had happened. He had boils, he was full of sores, he’d lost his family, his wealth, everything. But he never lost his commitment to God. And I hope that’s true of us. Even in my stupidity, I knew God hadn’t left me. I knew he had an answer somewhere. I just couldn’t find it. Job was a man who knew that whatever was happening, God was not against him.
Job 19:25-26
Face to face with God. That is God’s agenda for us. But Job didn’t know what was about to happen. He gets a bit silly, saying he wants to sit down with God and sort things out.
Job 23:3
He was an upright man, but he’d got distracted. He was looking in the wrong place, just as we do sometimes, and he’d said, “God, you seem a long way away.”
Job 31:40
Don’t get into that position when you declare, “That’s it God – I have nothing else to say to you.”
After all that verse, chapters 38-41 are God speaking. And this is wonderful.
Job 38:1-41:34
“OK,” says God, “Job – you think you know best.”
God goes on to ask Job about all the wonders of creation, and where Job was when God made it all. But He didn’t answer any of Job’s questions. He wasn’t interested. Some people who are not Christians would say He was a cruel God. But our ways and thoughts aren’t His. When we go through trials, we come out shining like burnished gold. God wasn’t interested in Job’s questions, just as He isn’t in ours.
Now we get a weak and humiliated Job – “I said things I should never have said.”
Job 42:1-5
Job didn’t necessarily see God face to face. But we’re talking about seeing God in all His glory and wisdom. Job was sorry for being so stupid. He got misled. But when God comes on the scene, everything changes.
In terms of today’s Christians, Job would be one of us. He knew God. But he still had to come to the place at the end of it, and admit he’d said things he shouldn’t have said and thought things he shouldn’t have thought.
I can say this to you because I’ve been through it myself. It may be that some of us have to come to God and admit that we thought our arguments were right, but He wasn’t interested.
Seeing God face to face: is that what you want? I know it is.
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Acts (Part 2 of 4) - Peter & Pentecost
We’re looking this evening at the Day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Last week we did an overview of the book – the type of person Luke was, why he wrote, what theology he touched on. We have time only to look at themes. The key verse was :
Acts 1:8
This was an unconditional promise. Jesus said they would receive power. All they had to do was to go back to Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Ghost was poured out.
This books bridges between the Gospels and the Epistles, providing the historical context for the Epistles. The Gospel was propelled – Jerusalem to Judaea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. Luke has one aim in view – the transmission of the Gospel from a Jewish centre in Jerusalem to the centre of the civilized world in Rome. In the Gospel of Luke, he starts in Rome (with talk of the taxing) and ends in Jerusalem with the crucifixion. Now we move in the other direction. This Gospel isn’t just for the Jewish nation, but for the people of the world. The Holy Spirit orchestrates everything, directing them in everything they do.
Acts 2:1
God’s timing is always perfect. In Gal 4, Paul refers to the fullness of time. Here again we have a sense of timing. This is a point in history where eternity intersects with time, and God sends for the promised Holy Spirit.
Pentecost means fiftieth. The Passover was the time when Jesus was crucified. Here we are fifty days later, which was when they celebrated the first fruits of harvest.
John 12:23-25
At the death of Jesus, the wheat had fallen into the ground, and now fifty days later we have the firstfruits. God had such a sense of timing. Jesus had done His work, had returned to heaven. In world terms, God had set the stage. At this point in history, we have the Romans in charge. The Greek civilization prior to them had brought a common language – everyone could speak Greek, not just the educated people. Not only that, but the Old Testament scriptures had all been translated into Greek. We have a common language for communication, and the scriptures in that common language. And the Romans enforced peace – the Pax Romana. That meant that communication was easier. They built roads, got rid of the brigands.
We have the Bible available in a language accessible to everyone. We have an area where there is easy communication. And people were fed up with the ethos of life – corruption and cruelty. 90% of people in Rome were slaves. There was hopelessness and despair. People wanted something different. They were ready to hear the Gospel. The whole of history had come together. God had set the stage for the time of harvest.
Martin Lloyd-Jones: It was the outpouring of the spirit on the day of Pentecost, unique but with aspects which were repeatable, which alone explained the survival of the Christian church .
God was at work in His people. The Comforter had come. The Comforter is one who comes to strengthen and equip us in our faith, to enlighten our understanding, to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, to guide us into all truth.
It’s the Holy Spirit who inspires and guides the events which transpire in this book. There’s a sense of purpose, of victory, of achievement, that God is at work.
Acts 1:1-3
By implication, this is still Jesus at work.
John 14:12
Luke is recounting the entire mission of Jesus is directed by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus instructs the apostles through the Holy Ghost Acts 1:2
The waiting disciples are baptised with the Holy Spirit Acts 1:5-8
Believers receive the Holy Spirit at new birth
Believers are described as filled with the Holy Ghost
The spirit is conferred by the laying on of hands, speaks to individuals and leads and guides.
In effect the Holy Spirit brings Jesus back amongst them, but is now unlimited in space and time. Because Jesus came as the second Adam, He came in the form of a man. He related with individuals. He lived and operated and did miracles within a limited geographical area. But now He doesn’t come as a man, but to indwell men, to empower men, to enable them to do what God is asking them to do. It’s the same, but it’s different.
The Spirit, like the Father, we don’t see. His chief work is to reveal the son and guide us into all truth. Although His ministry is unseen, He is revealing the fullness of the Father in each heart.
Primarily we see the Holy Spirit in relation to witness. He comes to reveal the things of Christ in the hearts of individuals, but that revelation is to be communicated to the world – it’s not just for you and me.
John 15:26-28
The revelation isn’t just for us – it’s to be communicated to the world. When you read through the Gospels and the early chapters of Acts, although they had shared intimate moments with Jesus, the disciples really had no understanding of what Jesus had come to do.
They believed in Him as the Son of God, a great prophet, the one who would release them from the Roman yoke. They knew nothing of the new creation, of righteousness, of the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without condemnation ... They had heard Jesus teaching, but did not grasp it. They did not understand John the Baptist’s word concerning Jesus.
They understood John’s baptism, the need to repent and get right with God, but they didn’t understand what God’s purpose was. They didn’t understand that Jesus would take the sins of the whole world, would die and would rise from the dead and return to the Father – and would send forth the Holy Ghost, and that Holy Ghost would come and indwell not only these people in Acts, but you and me today.
They couldn’t grasp this. They saw Jesus as having authority, as walking with God, as someone who would deliver them from Roman rule. But they didn’t really understand why he came.
We can’t grasp what it means until the Holy Spirit comes and shows us. It’s as though He takes the scales from our eyes, and we see, understand, speak in a new way.
MLJ: IF the Gospel was something you and I could understand, it would not be the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. It would be a philosophy.
We can’t persuade people into faith. There is a sense in which we persuade, challenge, convince, but it avails nothing unless the Holy Spirit is at work to convict.
When we examine the early chapters of Acts, one of the clearest things is the change in Peter. Other than Paul, he is the disciple who is described the most – impetuous, foolhardy, full of enthusiasm. He always had to push other people out of the way to make his presence felt. As a man he had a real call. He was the first to be called. He always heads the list. He heads the 12, heads the 3. He was the dominant personality, and became the spokesman for the others. He always opened his mouth before others spoke. He seemed to have real glimpses of revelation. When Jesus challenged them to say who He was, it was Peter who spoke up. And when people turned away, it was Peter who asked to whom else they could go. Peter saw ... and yet he didn’t see. He tried to deflect Jesus from going to Jerusalem, and Jesus had to rebuke him. He understood, but he didn’t understand because he didn’t understand the purpose for which Jesus had come.
But a tremendous change came, and that change was defined by the Day of Pentecost. People say he was a coward because of the denial. He was a man of courage and loyalty. He was ready to fight, but didn’t understand what the fight was to be. Probably the denial was the lowest point of his life. Peter wrote himself off, but Jesus didn’t – after the resurrection, He sent word to Peter.
Three time Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep – mirroring the three denials.
But despite all this, the disciples still wanted to know when He would restore the kingdom to Israel. They still saw Him as meeting their need, but He wasn’t there for that at all.
Peter went back to Jerusalem to wait for the promise. And then Pentecost happened, and the house was filled. God sent out His spirit, with wind and fire. Wind was associated with the spirit in Jewish tradition.
Ezekiel 37:9-15
This Gospel would be preached by men with tongues of fire. It would be preached in such a way that nothing could withstand it.
Stephen was the first one to pay the price for having a tongue of fire. They were all filed with the Holy Ghost, denoting new birth and a new creation, just as Jesus had promised.
I wonder what it was like when suddenly there was a mighty rushing wind and they began to speak. At that moment the church of Jesus Christ was born. These were the first fruits of His sacrifice. And once again, Peter is the first on his feet.
This is a different Peter, a man with authority. All the things he had failed to understand suddenly made sense. All the bits of the jigsaw started to come together, and he was able to communicate that to the people who were watching and listening.
Jesus had said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Peter hadn’t understood why that involved the cross, but now he understood. The truth of redemption was coming alive. The life of Christ was revealed inside him.
“You are the message.” At this time, Peter became the message. He was able to speak, convict because the Holy Spirit was working through him. And his words were tremendously challenging.
Acts 2:22-25
Acts 2:36
Peter didn’t pull any punches. This isn’t the Peter who hid when challenged by the maidservant. This is a man with authority, power and conviction. And they were pricked to their heart. The same mob who called for the crucifixion. Peter tells them they crucified Him. Peter comes in the power of the Holy Spirit, and says, “You did it.” And they ask what they should do, and Peter tells them to repent and be baptised.
This went far beyond the message that John preached, and the people responded to it. Jesus said ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free ... And it began on the Day of Pentecost. And the same Holy Spirit who birthed the early church lives and works within us. That power is as real today as then. The reality of the Holy Ghost convicting people of sin and filling them with Himself is as real today as then.
In Acts, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is just the same. Different format but just the same as when Jesus walked the earth.
Martin Lloyd Jones ...
God sent His spirit and hasn’t called Him home. The Holy Spirit is still at work, within individuals, within this church, within His church worldwide.
So we have a changed Peter – a man who is very different from the man we see in the Gospels, who has a sense of purpose and direction, who knows that God has selected him for a purpose, to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
In Acts 3, we have the account of the first miracle. A familiar story – the lame man healed at the Gate Beautiful. It must have been galling for the members of the Sanhedrin. 50 days before they had got rid of Jesus. They knew what they had done was unlawful. It was all wrong. The witnesses didn’t agree. On the cross, they thought they had silenced His voice forever. And here they are weeks later, and it sounds as though the same thing is happening all over again.
Once again they demand that these rebels be dragged before the Sanhedrin. Peter knows he has to give account of the fact that he has a faith, that God is at work, that the law and prophets have been fulfilled .
Acts 4:13
In the natural, Peter and John had little to commend them – no money, no status. Here they were, called before the Sanhedrin to give account. They were unlearned and ignorant. Why did Jesus choose people like that? He wanted to prove that people don’t come into the kingdom of God by natural ability or by what they do, but because something supernatural has been done to them, and they have been transformed.
“Peter had not been reading textbooks ... Something had happened to him. He had been filled with power. Hew was a new man. God’s power gives us power to live. It takes failures and puts backbones into them, making them new men and women so that where formerly they were defeated, they conquer ... That is Christianity, and there is only one explanation. They took knowledge that they had been with Jesus.”
Now by His spirit Jesus was living in them, and the authority and power He had was working through them.
Romans 1:16
Peter and John were convinced of the same truth. They had come to a place where they knew their lives were in God’s hands. All they wanted to do was fulfil what God wanted. He would take the consequences. They just had to proclaim the message.
They’re dragged before the Sanhedrin, which doesn’t baulk at sentencing people to die, and they are told not to teach and preach.
Acts 4:29-31
They didn’t snivel, cry. They didn’t say, “Shut their mouths.” They said, “Open ours.” They didn’t worry about the persecution. They didn’t pray that God would silence the Sanhedrin. Instead they prayed for boldness. I think there’s a lesson here for us. This church has come through turmoil, bit is our prayer that we want those silenced who would speak against us – or is our prayer that God protected this church, and that purpose hasn’t been completed. We need to get on with what God has given us today. We need to forget what people say against us. We have a world to impact and we are going to do it in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Peter and John were not important people. They had no influence. They took on the Sanhedrin. They took on the forces of Rome, the philosophies of the age. But their only source was God, and they asked Him that He would enable them, that they would be able to share all that Jesus had taught them, that they would be able to touch lives with the Word of life, touch bodies that needed healing.
How did this little group of people stand against the might of the Sanhedrin and the power of the Roman Empire and turn the world upside down? It’s been that way all down the ages. Luther stood against the power of the Catholic church with his revelation that salvation is by faith. He turned the world upside down. God could have used other people, but God had a perfect time, and used Luther to turn Christendom upside down and brought back the truth that salvation is by faith through the grace of God.
We look at 18th century England, deplorable moral conditions. Churches were empty. People scoffed at Christianity. It seemed the nation was locked in darkness. “But suddenly a boy called George Whitfield began to preach in a manner which shook church, congregations, England ... He was later followed by the Wesleys, and the whole face of England was changed.”
This is the Holy Spirit – not a suggestion, not a force, but the third person of the blessed Holy Trinity.
In Acts we see particularly the Holy Spirit making it possible for this message to be preached with holy boldness.
Acts 8:4
It took persecution to drive the believers out of Jerusalem. They went everywhere preaching the word. The Greek here is “talking”, not preaching. Every one of us can do that. We can share the word. There are moments when God opens things for you. Someone asks you a question, and you can respond with words you didn’t know you had. If you try it yourself it all goes wrong. But if God opens the way, you can share the reality of what Jesus has done.
And that’s what they did – sharing the Gospel, telling people what had happened to them. It was so different from everything they had ever known.
I can look back to the day God met me. I can only describe it as a light coming on inside me and I understood things in a way I had never done before. I can identify with Peter. There were years when I didn’t understand. But all through that time God was creating a need, showing me I didn’t have what it took. And when God came it was as though a light came on and I saw things differently. It was as though I was walking on air. There was a lightness, a joy, a confidence tat God had done something real. It wasn’t something I did. Something supernatural had been done to me.
Share what you have. You don’t have to have the whole counsel of God. We know only in part, but we can share the part we have, that God loves us, has spoken into our lives. Maybe we aren’t where we want to be, but we can share what we’ve got.
The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak.
1 Thessalonians 1:5
Everything was against Paul in this situation. It was a pagan city, the people had no Jewish background and they were living a life of sin. Paul came and began to speak the word in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. It wasn’t just his word – the Holy Ghost was speaking through him, and it bore fruit.
The Holy Ghost doesn’t just give us power to share, but also opens our hears to hear. Peter’s sermon at Pentecost was quite straightforward. There was nothing terribly special, but it came with power. The Holy Ghost took his words and planted them in the hearts of his audience and they were pricked in their hearts. They realised their guilt before God, and repented and were baptised and 3000 were added to the church. Later, 2000. Later the Gospel came to the Gentiles, because the Holy Ghost empowered both the speaker and the listener.
You see in this book also the importance of the Word of God. The book is punctuated by “and the Word of God grew and multiplied”. The word always came first. Peter asked for boldness to speak the word. The Holy Spirit and the word go hand in hand. Each of us needs that encounter with God which changes us on the inside. Where things we don’t understand, things we find difficult to believe suddenly become so simple.
The contrast between the Peter of the Gospel, unsteadfast, slow of heart ... and the same apostle as he meets us in Acts, firm, courageous ... is one of the most convincing proofs of the power of Christ’s resurrection.
I find it incredible that that gift is ours today. We can know that same power and authority. We can be part of God’s plan for His kingdom. We can take our place because we have the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
I want to finish where I started.
Acts 2:1
They were all in unity. They didn’t know what to expect, but they were standing together.
Psalms 133:1-4
There the Lord commanded the blessing. We’ve been looking at Nehemiah, which is about a people who stood together, who were prepared to fight for their brethren. Over the last five or six years, I’ve been asking God how we engender in a second generation that pioneer spirit which inhabits an early church. When this church was birthed, there weren’t huge numbers, but there was a common purpose. The school was something huge to us. You see the Queen Mary in sail, and you don’t know what it took to build her.
I asked God how we bring that spirit to a second generation. Because that school was born out of sacrifice. There were tremendous sacrifices on the part of the people. Some of you here are second generation, and I want you to lay hold of it. We can’t take people from where they are now and take them back twenty years and put them in a different situation.
I see that God is going to build another generation of pioneers. There is opposition, financial pressure. People are finding it difficult. And when you find it difficult, you begin to discover where your priorities lie. I want that pioneer spirit to be characteristic of every generation in this church. We have something that God has done in our midst which is precious, and we’re not going to let go. If we have to fight, we’ll fight, because where brethren stand together in unity, God commands the blessing.
God allows pressure because pressure works something in us. We don’t grow when things are easy. We sit down and enjoy it. But when there is pressure we have to draw on resources which are beyond us. We have to be like Peter and John who didn’t have status and power, but had the power of God. We have to stand because we believe this is what God wants.
At some time the baton has to pass. And the first generation of pioneers have to transmit it to the second generation of pioneers, and the ones who will take it are the ones who will not let go, who will go beyond every pressure and say, “I know what God has done, what He wants to do, and I will not let go.”
Sunday 15 February 2009
Nehemiah (Part 7 of 9) - Determination in the Face of Opposition
There were those around Nehemiah who were intent upon deflecting him from the work. But he showed determination in the face of all opposition – and we need to do the same.
I want to emphasise this morning that, despite anything you may have come across in the last week which has caused you to fear for the way forward, that fear is dispelled when we realise exactly what Christ has done for us and who we are in Him.
Jesus knew what He was about. There were times when He was deflected. People asked Him whether He was sure He knew what He was doing.
Luke 9:51-55
James and John were trying to help, but Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. No wavering. The track was definite. He set His face as a flint. James and John tried to help, but it was of the wrong spirit.
Matthew 16:21-23
Peter didn’t mean any harm. He couldn’t figure out why Jesus was so intent on getting to Jerusalem. But Jesus was going forward. It was what He needed to do.
In Nehemiah we’ll see this reflects what was going on in the rebuilding of the walls. It’s interesting that Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and Jesus had to get to Jerusalem. It was Father’s will for His life. What is Father’s will for your life? No matter what people do to deflect us, I want to do what Father has prepared. He has prepared good things for us to walk in. The enemy tries to make us fear, to worry about what we might miss out on. But there is a peace from living in the centre of God’s will. There will be those who will try to deflect you.
Last week in ch 4 we look at the need for the trumpet to sound where the enemy was attacking. As a church, if one member suffers, we all suffer. We rally. We’re a help.
In ch 5, Nehemiah was surprised. The opposition was constantly trying to chip away at the work that he had to do. What surprised Nehemiah was the fact that people on the inside were having problems. The men were working on the wall, and food was not available. It was expensive, and people were having to mortgage their land to obtain food. The families were suffering. Some people were taking advantage of the situation. People were charging interest on loans, which was against the law.
Nehemiah 5:9-12
Nehemiah was having to sort things out. He was loaning money too, but he wasn’t charging interest. And as we’ll see later, although as governor, he could call on money, he wasn’t doing so.
Nehemiah 5:19
Nehemiah 6:1-4
Now we return to the enemy. There are four strategies to deflect him from doing what Nehemiah knew he had to do. It was a huge undertaking – ten gates, long walls, much debris. It was hard work.
Nehemiah 6:1-4
Ono means strength. In chapters 2 and 4 we saw these people were trying to undermine what Nehemiah was doing. Four times he had to do the same thing.
Nehemiah means Jah is comfort. Comfort actually talks of strength. The Holy Spirit is the comforter. He comes to bring strength to be witnesses.
Nehemiah knew what he had to do – he had to keep going. There were people contrary to God who were saying there’s strength (Ono) over here. The world’s way is the way to go. The options were to stay doing what God had told him to do, despite the fact that it was tough, knowing that God had set him to rebuild the walls and the gates. The alternative was to come to an easy place – the plains. There was strength there.
Four times he gave the same reply – he was involved in a great work, and why should he come down?
Now Sanballat changes his approach ...
Nehemiah 6:5-7
They were making out that Nehemiah was doing all this work for himself, to build an empire for himself. But that had never entered his head. The truth was that he was getting on with what God had asked him to do.
Nehemiah 6:8-9
Something has happened this week. You’ve heard about something, and it’s knocked you off course until you’ve heard these words today. God is telling you to get back on course, not to worry about a little turbulence. The enemy is saying it’s too hard to do it that way – take the easy way. Or he’s telling you that God doesn’t love you and asking what the point is in taking the way you’ve taken.
In the same way, Jesus steadfastly set His face. He knew Father’s will.
From this moment forward, what am I re-establishing in my thinking? He is my Father, has called me, has given me faith. No matter what happens, my God is faithful. I know He will provide. I know as a parent what I have to do for my children. We saw earlier in this book how they were fighting for their families, looking out for each other.
Nehemiah 6:17-19
Letter after letter. There was a link with Tobiah. There was such an intermingling that half the time the children were speaking Jewish, and half the time the language of the Ashdodites.
The idea of the letters was to put Nehemiah in fear. During the 52 days it took to build the walls, the letters were coming and going. The enemy of your soul seeks to destabilise you. He’s not going to win, but we’re not ignorant of the attempt. He seeks to engender fear – what if this isn’t right, what if you have got it wrong, what if ...
Nehemiah 6:10-11
You’ve hit a brick wall – he wasn’t going to give in. And there was a reason ...
Numbers 1:51
The inner sanctuary was the province of the Levites. No one else was allowed in there on pain of death.
Nehemiah 6:12-13
This man had been hired by Nehemiah’s enemies, the people who were trying to deflect him from the work. The idea was that once he had gone into the Temple, they could point out to the Jews that Nehemiah was no worthy leader when he himself didn’t keep the law.
Nehemiah 6:14
Every so often there is a prayer in the book. Those prayers you have prayed in the last week, wondering how you would cope, and asking God for help ... He heard you. And part of what I’m saying now is the result of Him answering your prayer. He knows what He is doing. He loves you. He knows what He’s doing in your life. It’s our reaction to the pressure which is key. Do we fall into self-pity, or do we realise we are following in the train of His triumph?
He is outworking His purposes, to create the bride of Christ, to bring more people into His church. You and I are the message. We’re always ready to give an answer to why we believe what we do, always sensitive to what God wants to do through us. There’s a world which needs an answer, and the answer if Jesus Christ.
Nehemiah 6:15-16
That’s what’s happening in your life. What is being established is of God. It doesn’t matter what is being shouted at you from outside. It doesn’t matter what people are doing to try and deflect you. God is establishing His work in your life, by His Holy Spirit.
The enemies knew that this was God’s work.
In Mark, Jesus was with the same people who had tried to dissuade Jesus from taking His intended course.
Mark 14:32-39
Not what I will, but what thou wilt. Nehemiah knew it was God’s will for him to rebuild the walls. And here, again, “nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”.
Mark 14:60-5
Mocking, pulling down, vindictive. The cross here in church reminds us of what He did – outworking Father’s will, to give His life who knew no sin. He lived a sinless life, and took our sin and its penalty, and it was Father’s will. He willingly gave up His life. And the enemies thought that was it.
When Sanballat sent the third time, he thought that if they hammered away long enough, he would come – but he wouldn’t. It was the same with Jesus – the disciples could not conceive why He intended to do what He did. He did it for the joy set before – you, His bride, the church. He endured the cross, and then miracle of miracles, He rose from the dead.
Mark 16:14-20
We serve a risen Saviour. He’s in the world today, your world, the circumstances of your life. It doesn’t matter what someone else is saying to you, what murmuring seems to come across your path. Our life is hid with Christ in God. We’re Christians. We stand for truth, grace, righteousness. We stand for our family and brethren, because of what God has done for us. He conquered death. He conquered anything the enemy would throw at Him.
I want to emphasise this morning that, despite anything you may have come across in the last week which has caused you to fear for the way forward, that fear is dispelled when we realise exactly what Christ has done for us and who we are in Him.
Jesus knew what He was about. There were times when He was deflected. People asked Him whether He was sure He knew what He was doing.
Luke 9:51-55
James and John were trying to help, but Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. No wavering. The track was definite. He set His face as a flint. James and John tried to help, but it was of the wrong spirit.
Matthew 16:21-23
Peter didn’t mean any harm. He couldn’t figure out why Jesus was so intent on getting to Jerusalem. But Jesus was going forward. It was what He needed to do.
In Nehemiah we’ll see this reflects what was going on in the rebuilding of the walls. It’s interesting that Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and Jesus had to get to Jerusalem. It was Father’s will for His life. What is Father’s will for your life? No matter what people do to deflect us, I want to do what Father has prepared. He has prepared good things for us to walk in. The enemy tries to make us fear, to worry about what we might miss out on. But there is a peace from living in the centre of God’s will. There will be those who will try to deflect you.
Last week in ch 4 we look at the need for the trumpet to sound where the enemy was attacking. As a church, if one member suffers, we all suffer. We rally. We’re a help.
In ch 5, Nehemiah was surprised. The opposition was constantly trying to chip away at the work that he had to do. What surprised Nehemiah was the fact that people on the inside were having problems. The men were working on the wall, and food was not available. It was expensive, and people were having to mortgage their land to obtain food. The families were suffering. Some people were taking advantage of the situation. People were charging interest on loans, which was against the law.
Nehemiah 5:9-12
Nehemiah was having to sort things out. He was loaning money too, but he wasn’t charging interest. And as we’ll see later, although as governor, he could call on money, he wasn’t doing so.
Nehemiah 5:19
Nehemiah 6:1-4
Now we return to the enemy. There are four strategies to deflect him from doing what Nehemiah knew he had to do. It was a huge undertaking – ten gates, long walls, much debris. It was hard work.
Nehemiah 6:1-4
Ono means strength. In chapters 2 and 4 we saw these people were trying to undermine what Nehemiah was doing. Four times he had to do the same thing.
Nehemiah means Jah is comfort. Comfort actually talks of strength. The Holy Spirit is the comforter. He comes to bring strength to be witnesses.
Nehemiah knew what he had to do – he had to keep going. There were people contrary to God who were saying there’s strength (Ono) over here. The world’s way is the way to go. The options were to stay doing what God had told him to do, despite the fact that it was tough, knowing that God had set him to rebuild the walls and the gates. The alternative was to come to an easy place – the plains. There was strength there.
Four times he gave the same reply – he was involved in a great work, and why should he come down?
Now Sanballat changes his approach ...
Nehemiah 6:5-7
They were making out that Nehemiah was doing all this work for himself, to build an empire for himself. But that had never entered his head. The truth was that he was getting on with what God had asked him to do.
Nehemiah 6:8-9
Something has happened this week. You’ve heard about something, and it’s knocked you off course until you’ve heard these words today. God is telling you to get back on course, not to worry about a little turbulence. The enemy is saying it’s too hard to do it that way – take the easy way. Or he’s telling you that God doesn’t love you and asking what the point is in taking the way you’ve taken.
In the same way, Jesus steadfastly set His face. He knew Father’s will.
From this moment forward, what am I re-establishing in my thinking? He is my Father, has called me, has given me faith. No matter what happens, my God is faithful. I know He will provide. I know as a parent what I have to do for my children. We saw earlier in this book how they were fighting for their families, looking out for each other.
Nehemiah 6:17-19
Letter after letter. There was a link with Tobiah. There was such an intermingling that half the time the children were speaking Jewish, and half the time the language of the Ashdodites.
The idea of the letters was to put Nehemiah in fear. During the 52 days it took to build the walls, the letters were coming and going. The enemy of your soul seeks to destabilise you. He’s not going to win, but we’re not ignorant of the attempt. He seeks to engender fear – what if this isn’t right, what if you have got it wrong, what if ...
Nehemiah 6:10-11
You’ve hit a brick wall – he wasn’t going to give in. And there was a reason ...
Numbers 1:51
The inner sanctuary was the province of the Levites. No one else was allowed in there on pain of death.
Nehemiah 6:12-13
This man had been hired by Nehemiah’s enemies, the people who were trying to deflect him from the work. The idea was that once he had gone into the Temple, they could point out to the Jews that Nehemiah was no worthy leader when he himself didn’t keep the law.
Nehemiah 6:14
Every so often there is a prayer in the book. Those prayers you have prayed in the last week, wondering how you would cope, and asking God for help ... He heard you. And part of what I’m saying now is the result of Him answering your prayer. He knows what He is doing. He loves you. He knows what He’s doing in your life. It’s our reaction to the pressure which is key. Do we fall into self-pity, or do we realise we are following in the train of His triumph?
He is outworking His purposes, to create the bride of Christ, to bring more people into His church. You and I are the message. We’re always ready to give an answer to why we believe what we do, always sensitive to what God wants to do through us. There’s a world which needs an answer, and the answer if Jesus Christ.
Nehemiah 6:15-16
That’s what’s happening in your life. What is being established is of God. It doesn’t matter what is being shouted at you from outside. It doesn’t matter what people are doing to try and deflect you. God is establishing His work in your life, by His Holy Spirit.
The enemies knew that this was God’s work.
In Mark, Jesus was with the same people who had tried to dissuade Jesus from taking His intended course.
Mark 14:32-39
Not what I will, but what thou wilt. Nehemiah knew it was God’s will for him to rebuild the walls. And here, again, “nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”.
Mark 14:60-5
Mocking, pulling down, vindictive. The cross here in church reminds us of what He did – outworking Father’s will, to give His life who knew no sin. He lived a sinless life, and took our sin and its penalty, and it was Father’s will. He willingly gave up His life. And the enemies thought that was it.
When Sanballat sent the third time, he thought that if they hammered away long enough, he would come – but he wouldn’t. It was the same with Jesus – the disciples could not conceive why He intended to do what He did. He did it for the joy set before – you, His bride, the church. He endured the cross, and then miracle of miracles, He rose from the dead.
Mark 16:14-20
We serve a risen Saviour. He’s in the world today, your world, the circumstances of your life. It doesn’t matter what someone else is saying to you, what murmuring seems to come across your path. Our life is hid with Christ in God. We’re Christians. We stand for truth, grace, righteousness. We stand for our family and brethren, because of what God has done for us. He conquered death. He conquered anything the enemy would throw at Him.
Friday 13 February 2009
Getting Inside the Gospel
The message of the Gospel is not “God so loved the world ...” Or rather it is not just that. It is that we must love our neighbours. The message of the Gospel is truth and grace.
John 1:1
John 1:17
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
There’s a transition from the law, for the law was not a full understanding of the word. Through the Old Testament, the prophets give a glimpse of the word, but people didn’t really grasp it. But now we don’t deal with the law, but with truth, which is a great thing. Sometimes it’s a painful thing too. We are given truth and grace – such a lovely combination. It is the ministry Christ places into our hands as well – truth and grace.
It’s easy for us to read the Bible and just see the words. Our mind is at rest. We aren’t really thinking about what’s going on. The Bible is filled with so many amazing stories. As an actor I want to challenge you to come to it alive. Ask what is going on.
In Luke there are two meetings which happen with Jesus. Jesus is doing miracles and speaking with people, but He is also laying down a new concept of who God might be. Even the people who aren’t comfortable going to the synagogue are sitting eating with Jesus. He is relaxed, and He is saying, “This is God the Father.” Not “What do you think you’re doing?”, but “What are you doing right now? Would you like to have a meal with me?” God the Father wants to spend time with us.
He comes to an area and there is a man who is young, rich, one of the city councillors. He’s been doing the right stuff for a long time and people really think he’s the sort of person Jesus would want to meet. He was the shining example of their community. Days before, when they knew Jesus was on His way, they were getting together and debating what Jesus would think about their community and their councillor.
I can imagine a delegation coming to meet Jesus with the rich young man. And being a wise man, he says, “We hear of all the wonderful things You’ve been doing. I have a question for you. What must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus says, “You know the commandments.” Jesus the word, places this amazing challenge.
The man says he’s kept the laws perfectly since he was a child. He has certificates on his wall attesting to his life.
I want to go back to is quickly. I want you to see this in the context of the totality of the word. What Jesus is getting ready to do is not a foreign concept. It didn’t just happen when Jesus came on the scene.
I love the prophets because I’m an actor. We tend to read the prophets very “nicely”. But the prophets were unusual people. They were the performance artists of their day.
Isaiah 58:1-4
These might be the very words coming out of the mouth of the rich young ruler. In is it seems as if they have been righteous, but it is only a veneer, an external keeping of the ways of God, the law without truth and without grace.
Isaiah 58:5-8
Even in this text, God is trying to get the people to come back to the heart of who He is. The law was there to bring us back to understand the heart of God. But in trying to do this in a fashion, they were losing the very heart of who God is. That is a continual problem within the hearts of all mankind – to try to keep a law, but to lose out on the heart of what motivates us to do it.
If I have the form and say “I’ve done it all” and then look at you and say, “Have you done it all?” ... I can fall into this righteousness of comparison which the Pharisees and Sadducees had. And we miss the heart of what God wants – truth and grace. Jesus was able to sit down with sinners and make them feel comfortable and love.
Back in Luke, the man says he’s done everything. He is the righteousness of God. And Jesus says, “Ok ...” I want you to hear the comparison with Isaiah. “I think there’s one thing standing in the way of your being free.” Jesus wanted him free of his prison of self-righteousness. He says, “Sell all you have and given to the poor.” He says, “You’re forgetting the poor, the widow, compassion, grace, mercy.”
“Sell everything you have.” It’s fun to look at a text from the Bible and ask questions. We won’t find the exact answer. I think Jesus was trying to create a dialogue. That’s what God wants with us.
Jesus would have said, “You understand where God wants to go with you. Start with part of it. Set yourself free from this obsession with the material.” But instead, the man simply turned and walked away. The truth of his life was painful, and he didn’t want to remain in relationship with Jesus and obtain that grace.
Elsewhere in Luke, Jesus comes to another town. And in this town is a man who is the opposite of the rich young ruler. His name is Zaccheus.
Luke 19:1-3
The text doesn’t give us a lot, but it gives us something. As an actor, I look at the text. The tax collectors were working for the Roman Empire. They were, in effect, traitors to their own people and they were often taking more than was right. Why did Zaccheus take the job?
Let’s go back to when Zaccheus was a child, and he was rejected because he was too short to take part in games, and he was bullied and teased. Zaccheus decides that one day he’ll get his own back. When the Romans come to town, Zaccheus sees the fear on the face of his neighbours, and he goes and makes a deal with the Romans. He signs up as a tax collector, and then goes to visit his neighbour to screw money out of him. And that is who Zaccheus became – the guy everyone loved to hate.
Let’s imagine ourselves into this text. Zaccheus wants to see Jesus. He is shunned by his community. They see him as the bad guy. And then he hears of a rabbi who is saying that God is opening up his heart to every man, woman and child. Not “What are you doing?”, but “What are you doing now – I’d like to spend time with you.”
He never goes to the synagogue. No one would accept him there. But he’s intrigued by Jesus. There’s a crowd waiting to see Jesus, and he can’t push his way through. In the end, he runs ahead of the gathering crowd and climbs a tree so he can see what this rabbi might look like who is speaking about a God of truth and grace.
Luke 19:5
“What are you doing tonight?” It’s the last thing Zaccheus imagined would happen. He knows who he is. He just wants to get a glimpse of this rabbi. And Jesus says, “What are you doing tonight?”
This is the person we say we are following – the Christ. And we take our title from this radical man who went into a community and knew the man everyone loved to hate, and stirs up the hornet’s nest.
I’m sure this community too had a man everyone wanted Him to meet. And Jesus stops at the wrong place.
Zaccheus quickly comes down and welcomes Jesus joyfully. And all those who saw it began to complain. “We thought this was a teacher of the law, and He’s going to stay with a sinful man.” But He wasn’t a teacher of the law – He came to bring grace and truth.
The response of Zaccheus is amazing:
Luke 19:8
Jesus did was invite Himself to Zaccheus’s house, and the response from Zaccheus is the response Jesus was looking for from the rich young ruler.
We often miss what God wants to do in our lives because we are looking at the commands and trying to be perfect, and we want the world to be perfect as well. And the heart of God is speaking to us over and over again – “Grace and truth for yourself and for your neighbourhood.”
The thing I want to plant into our hearts tonight is just a simple rearranging of our thoughts about Christianity. What is the message?
In many ways we’ve come to the place where we have understood the message to be “For God so loved...” so everywhere we go, that’s what we say. What I want to suggest is that this the vehicle through which the message came. The message is truth and grace. God is saying to you and your community, “What are you doing right now? I want to meet with you, be with you, cause my heart to be with you.”
It’s one of the biggest problems with communication. We don’t know how to deliver the message because often we don’t know what the message is.
There was a young Christian rock and roil musician, and he was asked about the communication of the Gospel. He said, “I think Christians have it wrong. We say, ‘Have you heard the good news – you’re going to hell!’ ”
There is an interesting sense of pushing the idea that Jesus died for us, when people aren’t ready to understand what that means. Jesus told many stories which come back to what is spoke about.
A man went on a journey and he was attacked by robbers and they left him for dead. And then along came one of his community members. He was a worship leader in a church. The man on the ground called out for help, but the leader was preoccupied in worship to God, and believed his worship was acceptable because it sounded nice. Another man came along who was a teacher. Again the victim called out, and the teacher told him off for interrupting his train of thought. He believed he could please God through his intellect. And Jesus said, “Along came a man who was a Samaritan.” He said this to a group of people who had trouble with the Samaritans. This man looked after the victim like a neighbour.
What’s the message? It is that “God so loved the world ...” “God loved the world so much that He gave His only son” is what God did for us to treat us as that neighbour. That’s part of the message. But the message is that we must love our neighbours. It is not theological or social. It is truth and grace.
Gets people to think of their favourite restaurant meal and describe how to get to the restaurant, and what the meal tastes like. The route doesn’t require you to be creative. But when it comes to describing the meal, you have to be creative. In listening to the description of the meal, was it more interesting than the directions? I suspect so. But I think we often get the two caught up.
You are the light of the world. The church is the place where we come to be edified so we can go out and minister. We are the ministers of the Gospel, but we are to go out from here to do the work of ministry. Often we don’t know what that means, and we end up giving people directions – how to become Christians – when we need to tell them about the meal.
Who is God in your life? Sometimes it’s just an action like being the good neighbour Samaritan.
In 1 Peter, Peter says to be ready at all times to give an answer. But often we come with the answer before they ask the questions. Directions aren’t interesting.
Jesus said those who hunger for righteousness will be satisfied. But that hunger has to be in their lives. In Zaccheus’s life it came because he had heard about this man who was presenting a different picture.
You’re it. Go into the world and be witnesses of what you know. Be like the blind man who said, “I don’t know how to explain things, but this one thing I know. This is what God is doing in my life.”
We don’t have to be theological giants or amazing street evangelise. We just have to be people who have tasted the goodness of God, and who see other people not as enemies, but as people with whom we’re prepared to spend time.
You are the ministers of the Gospel in the world. Let your light shine in such a way that people will see the works of your life and give glory to your father in heaven.
This place where we come is a place to hear, to be together and encourage one another. But it’s not the greatest place of ministry. The world you live in is that place. Sometimes the job of being that light seems overwhelming, and we love to come back here where we feel safe. It feels good. But your calling is to go into the world and be light, to be like the one you call yourself after, the word made flesh, who introduced truth and grace.
Let the message of your lives be loving your neighbours as yourself and loving your God with all your heart, soul and mind.
John 1:1
John 1:17
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
There’s a transition from the law, for the law was not a full understanding of the word. Through the Old Testament, the prophets give a glimpse of the word, but people didn’t really grasp it. But now we don’t deal with the law, but with truth, which is a great thing. Sometimes it’s a painful thing too. We are given truth and grace – such a lovely combination. It is the ministry Christ places into our hands as well – truth and grace.
It’s easy for us to read the Bible and just see the words. Our mind is at rest. We aren’t really thinking about what’s going on. The Bible is filled with so many amazing stories. As an actor I want to challenge you to come to it alive. Ask what is going on.
In Luke there are two meetings which happen with Jesus. Jesus is doing miracles and speaking with people, but He is also laying down a new concept of who God might be. Even the people who aren’t comfortable going to the synagogue are sitting eating with Jesus. He is relaxed, and He is saying, “This is God the Father.” Not “What do you think you’re doing?”, but “What are you doing right now? Would you like to have a meal with me?” God the Father wants to spend time with us.
He comes to an area and there is a man who is young, rich, one of the city councillors. He’s been doing the right stuff for a long time and people really think he’s the sort of person Jesus would want to meet. He was the shining example of their community. Days before, when they knew Jesus was on His way, they were getting together and debating what Jesus would think about their community and their councillor.
I can imagine a delegation coming to meet Jesus with the rich young man. And being a wise man, he says, “We hear of all the wonderful things You’ve been doing. I have a question for you. What must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus says, “You know the commandments.” Jesus the word, places this amazing challenge.
The man says he’s kept the laws perfectly since he was a child. He has certificates on his wall attesting to his life.
I want to go back to is quickly. I want you to see this in the context of the totality of the word. What Jesus is getting ready to do is not a foreign concept. It didn’t just happen when Jesus came on the scene.
I love the prophets because I’m an actor. We tend to read the prophets very “nicely”. But the prophets were unusual people. They were the performance artists of their day.
Isaiah 58:1-4
These might be the very words coming out of the mouth of the rich young ruler. In is it seems as if they have been righteous, but it is only a veneer, an external keeping of the ways of God, the law without truth and without grace.
Isaiah 58:5-8
Even in this text, God is trying to get the people to come back to the heart of who He is. The law was there to bring us back to understand the heart of God. But in trying to do this in a fashion, they were losing the very heart of who God is. That is a continual problem within the hearts of all mankind – to try to keep a law, but to lose out on the heart of what motivates us to do it.
If I have the form and say “I’ve done it all” and then look at you and say, “Have you done it all?” ... I can fall into this righteousness of comparison which the Pharisees and Sadducees had. And we miss the heart of what God wants – truth and grace. Jesus was able to sit down with sinners and make them feel comfortable and love.
Back in Luke, the man says he’s done everything. He is the righteousness of God. And Jesus says, “Ok ...” I want you to hear the comparison with Isaiah. “I think there’s one thing standing in the way of your being free.” Jesus wanted him free of his prison of self-righteousness. He says, “Sell all you have and given to the poor.” He says, “You’re forgetting the poor, the widow, compassion, grace, mercy.”
“Sell everything you have.” It’s fun to look at a text from the Bible and ask questions. We won’t find the exact answer. I think Jesus was trying to create a dialogue. That’s what God wants with us.
Jesus would have said, “You understand where God wants to go with you. Start with part of it. Set yourself free from this obsession with the material.” But instead, the man simply turned and walked away. The truth of his life was painful, and he didn’t want to remain in relationship with Jesus and obtain that grace.
Elsewhere in Luke, Jesus comes to another town. And in this town is a man who is the opposite of the rich young ruler. His name is Zaccheus.
Luke 19:1-3
The text doesn’t give us a lot, but it gives us something. As an actor, I look at the text. The tax collectors were working for the Roman Empire. They were, in effect, traitors to their own people and they were often taking more than was right. Why did Zaccheus take the job?
Let’s go back to when Zaccheus was a child, and he was rejected because he was too short to take part in games, and he was bullied and teased. Zaccheus decides that one day he’ll get his own back. When the Romans come to town, Zaccheus sees the fear on the face of his neighbours, and he goes and makes a deal with the Romans. He signs up as a tax collector, and then goes to visit his neighbour to screw money out of him. And that is who Zaccheus became – the guy everyone loved to hate.
Let’s imagine ourselves into this text. Zaccheus wants to see Jesus. He is shunned by his community. They see him as the bad guy. And then he hears of a rabbi who is saying that God is opening up his heart to every man, woman and child. Not “What are you doing?”, but “What are you doing now – I’d like to spend time with you.”
He never goes to the synagogue. No one would accept him there. But he’s intrigued by Jesus. There’s a crowd waiting to see Jesus, and he can’t push his way through. In the end, he runs ahead of the gathering crowd and climbs a tree so he can see what this rabbi might look like who is speaking about a God of truth and grace.
Luke 19:5
“What are you doing tonight?” It’s the last thing Zaccheus imagined would happen. He knows who he is. He just wants to get a glimpse of this rabbi. And Jesus says, “What are you doing tonight?”
This is the person we say we are following – the Christ. And we take our title from this radical man who went into a community and knew the man everyone loved to hate, and stirs up the hornet’s nest.
I’m sure this community too had a man everyone wanted Him to meet. And Jesus stops at the wrong place.
Zaccheus quickly comes down and welcomes Jesus joyfully. And all those who saw it began to complain. “We thought this was a teacher of the law, and He’s going to stay with a sinful man.” But He wasn’t a teacher of the law – He came to bring grace and truth.
The response of Zaccheus is amazing:
Luke 19:8
Jesus did was invite Himself to Zaccheus’s house, and the response from Zaccheus is the response Jesus was looking for from the rich young ruler.
We often miss what God wants to do in our lives because we are looking at the commands and trying to be perfect, and we want the world to be perfect as well. And the heart of God is speaking to us over and over again – “Grace and truth for yourself and for your neighbourhood.”
The thing I want to plant into our hearts tonight is just a simple rearranging of our thoughts about Christianity. What is the message?
In many ways we’ve come to the place where we have understood the message to be “For God so loved...” so everywhere we go, that’s what we say. What I want to suggest is that this the vehicle through which the message came. The message is truth and grace. God is saying to you and your community, “What are you doing right now? I want to meet with you, be with you, cause my heart to be with you.”
It’s one of the biggest problems with communication. We don’t know how to deliver the message because often we don’t know what the message is.
There was a young Christian rock and roil musician, and he was asked about the communication of the Gospel. He said, “I think Christians have it wrong. We say, ‘Have you heard the good news – you’re going to hell!’ ”
There is an interesting sense of pushing the idea that Jesus died for us, when people aren’t ready to understand what that means. Jesus told many stories which come back to what is spoke about.
A man went on a journey and he was attacked by robbers and they left him for dead. And then along came one of his community members. He was a worship leader in a church. The man on the ground called out for help, but the leader was preoccupied in worship to God, and believed his worship was acceptable because it sounded nice. Another man came along who was a teacher. Again the victim called out, and the teacher told him off for interrupting his train of thought. He believed he could please God through his intellect. And Jesus said, “Along came a man who was a Samaritan.” He said this to a group of people who had trouble with the Samaritans. This man looked after the victim like a neighbour.
What’s the message? It is that “God so loved the world ...” “God loved the world so much that He gave His only son” is what God did for us to treat us as that neighbour. That’s part of the message. But the message is that we must love our neighbours. It is not theological or social. It is truth and grace.
Gets people to think of their favourite restaurant meal and describe how to get to the restaurant, and what the meal tastes like. The route doesn’t require you to be creative. But when it comes to describing the meal, you have to be creative. In listening to the description of the meal, was it more interesting than the directions? I suspect so. But I think we often get the two caught up.
You are the light of the world. The church is the place where we come to be edified so we can go out and minister. We are the ministers of the Gospel, but we are to go out from here to do the work of ministry. Often we don’t know what that means, and we end up giving people directions – how to become Christians – when we need to tell them about the meal.
Who is God in your life? Sometimes it’s just an action like being the good neighbour Samaritan.
In 1 Peter, Peter says to be ready at all times to give an answer. But often we come with the answer before they ask the questions. Directions aren’t interesting.
Jesus said those who hunger for righteousness will be satisfied. But that hunger has to be in their lives. In Zaccheus’s life it came because he had heard about this man who was presenting a different picture.
You’re it. Go into the world and be witnesses of what you know. Be like the blind man who said, “I don’t know how to explain things, but this one thing I know. This is what God is doing in my life.”
We don’t have to be theological giants or amazing street evangelise. We just have to be people who have tasted the goodness of God, and who see other people not as enemies, but as people with whom we’re prepared to spend time.
You are the ministers of the Gospel in the world. Let your light shine in such a way that people will see the works of your life and give glory to your father in heaven.
This place where we come is a place to hear, to be together and encourage one another. But it’s not the greatest place of ministry. The world you live in is that place. Sometimes the job of being that light seems overwhelming, and we love to come back here where we feel safe. It feels good. But your calling is to go into the world and be light, to be like the one you call yourself after, the word made flesh, who introduced truth and grace.
Let the message of your lives be loving your neighbours as yourself and loving your God with all your heart, soul and mind.
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Acts (Part 1 of 4) - The Early Church
This is a very significant time to be studying the book of Acts.
I obtained a book called the Outline Bible some time ago. It gives a synopsis of each book of the Bible. The author says that Acts is the only unfinished book in the Bible.
Tonight we’ll look at Luke, the author of the book, and then we’ll look at the theology. We want this to be relevant to our lives.
Acts 28:30-31
The book ends up with the fact that there was no hindrance to the proclamation of the Gospel. We are here because this is the church age. Time will end when the church is complete.
It’s exciting to study the book of Acts, because it is primarily about the church. This book should be called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of the resurrection, the Acts of the ascended and glorified Lord.
Acts talks much about Paul. He wasn’t an apostle who met with Jesus. But the book is to do with the acts of the ascended and glorified Lord. It deals with the early church, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, how God moved, how evangelisation took place, how the Gentiles were included, and the emergence of the early church.
We’ll take themes from the book of Acts, and we’ll focus on the Holy Spirit. We need to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us individually and collectively.
In the Old Testament, we are mainly aware of the activity of God the Father, in the creation, the flood, the calling of Abraham etc.
Then we have the four Gospels, mainly about God the Son, manifesting God in the flesh.
Acts looks mainly at the activity of God the Holy Spirit.
We need to be careful how we refer to the Holy Spirit. We readily assume God the Father, and then the Son – down a bit from the Father. And the Holy Spirit is just “somehow” there. We’re aware of the Trinity, but if you put God in front of each one – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, it helps put the Holy Spirit in His rightful place. That’s why when you read the verse about grieving the Holy Spirit, it allows for that respect and dignity.
In acts we look at the activity of God the Holy Spirit.
We know the Spirit was present in creation. He moved through key individuals, and caused men to write the scriptures. 66 books all inspired by God’s Holy Spirit – God the Holy Spirit. The prophecy running through the Old Testament was that a day was coming when the Spirit of God would be poured out on all flesh.
Joel 2:28-32
That day was coming. It was prophesied. And in Acts we come to the occasion in time when the Holy Spirit was given.
John 7:37-39
There you have it again – the fact of the Spirit being promised and given.
Luke 24:45-49
And again – the promise of the Spirit. And God the Holy Spirit is the one who makes you emboldened, secure, as a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts we’ll see how when the Spirit came they were emboldened to be that witness.
Who wrote Acts? It was written by Luke. He wrote the Gospel and the Book of Acts, and you could treat them as one book. He wrote 40% of the New Testament. Luke and Acts are a two-part volume of one book.
We think of the Gospels as being written by those who walked with Jesus, but Luke didn’t. He was a doctor, an educated Greek. He was careful to pinpoint in history where everything happened.
Luke 3:1
You can’t get more specific than that. He intended to make things accurate and careful. This was the method by which the documents in the first century were regularly dated. Luke/Acts is the first attempt at an historical record of the Christian movement from the inside.
We’ve looked recently at the martyrdom of Stephen, and how vivid the account was. The criterion of the appointment of the seven deacons was that they should be filled wit the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere Luke uses eye-witness accounts. He goes in for thorough investigation, and claims that he was guided by the Holy Spirit.
We have two volumes of one book with a structured account of the life of Jesus, and then the growth of Christianity in Acts.
Luke 1:1-4
The Gospel was addressed to a particular individual and was an account of the life of Jesus. Now let’s look at how Acts starts :-
Acts 1:1-2
Luke was written to Theophilus and so was Acts. Luke refers back to the Gospel in the opening of Acts.
At the end of Acts, there’s an unfinished work. But look at the end of Luke :-
Luke 24:49-53
They went back to the Jerusalem, and it was there they were endued with power.
So you can see the link between the two books.
There are several possible divisions of Acts ...
In the first division, we see Chapters 1-12 dealing with the beginning of the church around Jerusalem, where the focus is on the leadership of Peter and John. And then the rest of the book deals with the expansion into the Roman empire, focusing on Paul and Barnabas.
Another division is to see Acts 1-7 referring to Jerusalem, 8-10 to Samaria and Judea, and 11-28 to the ends of the earth. You’ve thrown a rock in a pool and the ripples are spreading out, and the ripples are still happening, and one of them is here tonight. It’s exciting to study this as a church in the 21st century, each wanting to do what God wants in our lives.
A third division sees the book as six panels, each divided by the Holy Spirit bringing a close to that section, and at the end of each you change up a gear. More people join the church ... and more ... and more. You get a sense of what God is doing to establish the bride of Christ.
Under this division, the first section runs from 1:1 to 6:7, where we have a description of the primitive church in Jerusalem, its preaching, common life and the opposition. Everything is Jewish. The early believers continued in association with the synagogues – and you can understand that.
But now it was to go out from Jerusalem to the Gentiles – and a completely different mindset was required. Peter was required to eat something which he had always seen as unclean, but God said it was clean, and Peter realised he was caught up with the maelstrom of the church reaching out to the Gentiles.
In your own life, be careful if God brings across your path someone who you thought was beyond salvation. Woe betide us if we pigeonhole people. These people are those for whom Jesus died. Be open to what God wants to do through you in sharing the Gospel.
Acts 6:7
That marks the end of the first section, and things go up a gear. The number of disciples multiplied.
The next section runs from 6:8 to 9:31. Here we go out geographically to those activities carried out by the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians. It includes the conversion of Paul who was a Hellenist Jew.
Acts 9:31
The ripple goes out again – Judaea, Galilee and Samaria.
The next section is 9:32 to 12:24, and gives a description of the first expansion to the Gentiles. The key is the conversion of Cornelius. His conversion was through Peter, not through the Hellenists. Peter was Jew, and it was a direct intervention of God.
Acts 12:24-25
Again the Word of God grew and multiplied.
Did this multiplication take place only in the early church to launch it? Is it a thing of the past? Obviously there was a start. But what are we looking for now in this church? We’re looking for what God wants to do here. That will involve preaching this Word so that faith will be engendered in others and so that others will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem will be finding room for all the people.
The next section runs from 12:25 to 16:5. It describes the first geographical expansion into the Gentile world with Paul as leader. The church meets in counsel and does not reject its Gentile brothers, nor does it lay Jewish ritual practices on them. They had to come to terms with what was going on. Did they force these practices on people, or did they accept that God was pushing things out to the Gentile world? It shook their thinking.
Acts 16:4-5
Increased – multiplied. At the end of each section, there’s gathering momentum.
The next section runs from 16:6 to 19:20 and shows the expansion into Europe.
Acts 19:20
The final section runs from 19:21 to the end of the book, and describes the events which moved Paul and the Gospel on to Rome. Three times Paul is declared innocent of any wrongdoing.
The key to understanding this book of Acts is Luke’s interest in this momentum, in the switch from Jerusalem out to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Something similar happened with the Moravians, with them moving ever outwards, and you end up with Moravian missions in the Pacific islands. I believe people will go out from this church, and missionaries will go out.
Luke’s interest in the growth of the church means he doesn’t go into things you might have expected. He doesn’t go into biographical details. He doesn’t talk about church organisation. There are no details about how the deacons were appointed. We have principles in church organisation, but it’s not written down. He doesn’t explain how leadership passed from Peter to James. There’s no talk of Crete, etc, etc. He seems to know what he was going to write, and it was a direct line from Jerusalem to Rome. He’s not interested in standardisation of conversion. Sometimes baptism comes first. Sometimes it comes later. Sometimes he mentions tongues, sometimes not. There’s no indication that the Gentile churches had the same communal life as in Jerusalem.
But Acts is to be seen as a model – the joyful progress of the Gospel, changing lives. And because this is God’s purpose for the church, noting can hinder it.
I want now to look at the purpose of the book.
Purpose 1: At the beginning of Luke, Theophilus was mentioned. He was probably a Gentile official, and Luke wanted him to understand more clearly the historical events which underlie the Christian faith.
A handful of people. uneducated men and women, had turned the world upside down.
Acts 17:6
That’s power, when you turn the world upside down in the face of opposition! Whether it’s Wesley and Whitfield confronted with a world soaked in gin ... Within two centuries Christianity became the main force of the Roman Empire, and by the 3rd century Constantine declared it the official faith.
Acts 1:8
The key verse. That’s the ripple effect going out from Jerusalem.
Purpose 2: There are eight sermons of Peter in the book, one of Stephen, one of Philip and one of Paul.
Purpose 3: There are four things which show the continuation of God’s purpose in history.
History 1. The events in Acts are seen as being brought about by the will and purpose of God.
Acts 2:23
Acts 4:27-29
God brought this about and was undertaking what He wanted to do. They were in the path of God’s destiny for them.
History 2. The life of the church is seen as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy.
Acts 13:46-47
Complete confidence that they were in line with what God wanted. They weren’t wavering. There was an urgency, a focus. You can see the life of the church as the outworking of the Old Testament prophecy.
History 3. The church was directed by God at crucial times.
Acts 13:2
Acts 15:28
Acts 16:6
Acts 18:9
Specific intervention.
Acts 23:11
And again. Specific, clear, definitive, directional. The purpose of God. And that’s what we want in our lives.
History 4. The power of God was seen in signs and wonders.
Acts 3:16
Purpose 4: To detail the mission, which we know about from Acts 1:8.
Purpose 5: To set out the message, which was straightforward – Jesus, whom God raised from the dead is Lord and Messiah. He offers forgiveness of sins, and He sends the Holy Spirit. The main story relates to the spread of this message.
Purpose 6. To describe the progress made despite opposition.
Acts 14:21-22
Purpose 7. To talk about the opposition. This is why you can have confidence in what’s going on in your life. God is working out His perfect purposes for your life. And God will make things clear because He loves you.
There are parallels with the opposition Jesus faced. When Stephen was martyred and persecution came, it was the means of spreading the Gospel. It’s strange how God sees things and how God is in control of any circumstance for your good.
Purpose 8. A big theme is the inclusion of the Gentiles. There were tensions when this took place. Should Jewish practices be continued? Luke shows how the problem was solved. When the Spirit fell on the Gentiles, Peter was prepared to eat with them – but it’s not clear everyone else felt the same way. The Jerusalem council confirmed the point that circumcision was unnecessary, but set other standards.
Then Acts also chronicles the increasing refusal of the Jews to accept the Gospel.
The books does refer here and there to the organisation of the church.
Acts 4:32-37
Acts 2:42-50
It’s quite a lifestyle. Does it mean we sell our houses? I don’t think so. But what’s our heart in relation to our possessions? That’s the key thing.
Small group meetings, the importance of the Spirit, the source of joy and power, who guides the church in their choice of leaders, their evangelistic activity (generally in teams of two or four), based essentially on the lives of Peter and Paul.
What would it be like if I were to start recording the acts of the people of Trinity in 2009? Looking at each one of you who have made the effort to come here tonight. It would be a lovely book to write because of what God will do through you and for you, outworking His purposes.
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