Silver Street Baptist Mission

[Rev 5: 1 – 14 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 04 March, 2012]

JOHN’S PICTURE of heaven continues with the sudden appearance of a scroll and of a Lamb, a Lamb looking like it was slain, yet right in the midst, where God has his throne.

Revelation paints a radically different picture of Jesus.
Paul speaks of Jesus as the first-born of creation — the number one Son of God.
John the gospel writer speaks of the eternal Word, face to face with God in heaven.

But, in Revelation, we see painting after painting — word paintings — revealing this same Jesus as the ultimate sacrificial Lamb, the one perpetually in his Father’s presence, the one who gave his life for all who are his own.

 

A teenager went to church for the first time with a friend and was horrified when they sang, “Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?” What kind of horrible things did they do in these churches?

 

We laugh, but do you understand about Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God? This is a challenge to us as we struggle with the images in this chapter of Revelation.

In this chapter, we meet a Lamb: a worthy Lamb; a slain Lamb; a powerful Lamb.

 

A WORTHY LAMB
John is distressed.
In his vision, he sees a scroll in God’ hand, in the hand of Him who sits on the throne.
It is a scroll full of information, written on both sides. It must be vital information for all humankind. But who can open it? It is sealed shut with seven seals.

I went to Seaworld once, and saw an enclosure which I named The Heavenly Enclosure, because it contained seven seals. But this isn’t what John means, of course.

In those days, no one had invented envelopes, and many people, even the rich and powerful, couldn’t read and write, or they might read and not write.

So, if you had an important document, you rolled it so the writing was on the inside, and you dropped a blob of hard wax onto the edge to glue the parchment or papyrus down, and you pressed a stamp into that wax which was your own personal stamp. Some people wore a ring with the stamp engraved in it, others used a stick or block of stone with the stamp.

This was how they sealed the scroll.

But this scroll is a very important one. It has writing on the inside and on the outside. You can see some of what is written, but you can’t get the entire idea of what it is saying.
To show how important it is, there is not just a single seal, there are seven seals.

Seven seals mean several things. Remember I said a few weeks ago, that Revelation is a series of pictures, and you should understand the pictures?

So there’s a scroll, with a lot written in it, and it is sealed all along the edge. No one can lift a corner to see what is inside. It is perfectly sealed. That’s the point of the seven seals. Seven is the number of perfection in the Bible.
Seven is also a number relating to God, because God is perfect. Seven is the number of spirits before the throne, because the Holy Spirit is perfect.

This is God’s scroll, and who is worthy to open it, except God himself?

This is why John is so bitterly disappointed. God has written a message, and there is no one to open it for those who need to hear.
He is so upset that he bursts into tears.

Rev 5:4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.

But suddenly there is an answer!

Rev 5:5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Here’s the answer: a lion! The source from whom the great King David drew strength! The One who triumphed: he is capable; he can open the scroll, he can break the seals!

But John looks around, and look at what he can see:

Rev 5:6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre before the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

This is not what he expected. I don’t know if you have seen a sheep slain the Middle Eastern way. It is not the prettiest of sights. It looks completely powerless and defeated. Surely this couldn’t be the answer to the greatest problem in the world!

But isn’t that God’s way?

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord.

It is not by human strength and agency that God’s aims are achieved, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not by being on top of things, but in weakness; it is not by maintaining the façade, but by pulling up the shutters that we win the victory. It is the Lamb that looks like it has been slain which is the victor.

The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Rev 5:7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.
9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

This weak, defeated being is the one to open the seals.
You notice that this doesn’t say that he has the power to open the seals. He is worthy to open the seals.

To illustrate this, imagine if they had a special ANZAC Day ceremony, opening a memorial to those who have fought around the world in various conflicts.

It would be possible for me to open the memorial. I can make speeches, I am strong enough to pull the cord to unveil the memorial, there is a military tradition in my family, so I suppose I have some understanding of military issues.

That is, I have the power to do it.

But am I worthy? The closest I got to military service myself was to put my name into the ballot for Vietnam service. I suspect they didn’t want me.

But, if they wanted someone worthy to open it, they would choose someone who had fought, perhaps been awarded a medal or bore the scars of battle.
And Jesus is worthy because he has fought for us and he bears the scars of the battle.

Five bleeding wounds he bears,
Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayer
They boldly plead for me:
“Forgive him! O, forgive!” they cry
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

Jesus is the slain Lamb because he was the final, effective sacrifice, the one which ends all blood sacrifices.

Some people are disgusted and horrified by the idea of blood sacrifice, but they forget that Jesus is the end of it. He fulfils everything that might be expected of animal sacrifices.

As we often sing,

The price is paid
Come, let us enter in
To all that Jesus died
to make our own…

Jesus paid the price. He absolutely didn’t deserve the cross, but Jew and Gentile combined to crucify him. All the world’s enmity was poured out upon him. He breathed his last, offered up his life, and died.
And God raised him from the dead. In that resurrection, in his ascension, Jesus became the victor, the one who chose not to harm his attackers, but to trust his life into the hands of his heavenly Father, and conquered death and hell in that way.

Jesus is worthy to break the seals because he was slain, and with his blood purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation.

 

THE SLAIN LAMB
We saw that Jesus is worthy, but we need to go back a little and see that he was truly the slain Lamb. We need to understand what that implies.

As I said before, God’s way is not the way of human power.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord.

If you go back to the story of Gideon in the book of Judges, one of those stories you heard in Sunday School if you went there, Gideon was called by God to defeat the enemies who had occupied the land of the Israelites.

Gideon said, in effect, “Who, me? I am a nobody! No one even knows my family? Who would join an army I called together to fight these powerful enemies?”
But God said, “It doesn’t matter: I have chosen you.
So a reluctant Gideon called together his army. He must have been surprised when 32000 men arrived!
But he must have been amazed when God told him to send more than half home, and then whittled the remaining 10000 down until, in the end, there was a core of only 300 men.

And those 300 men formed into three groups of 100 men and armed them with trumpets, water pots and blazing torches. In the dark of the night, they surrounded the Midianite and Amalekite camp.

When those men smashed the pots, and, in the suddenly flaring light of their torches, blew their trumpets and shouted, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” The enemy soldiers panicked, they killed each other, and all who survived ran away.

Without violence or aggression, Gideon’s tiny army defeated those who had long oppressed the land.

And that is what God’s way looks like. People like to paint God as violent and aggressive, but his chosen way is the way of turning the other cheek, the way of walking an extra mile with the man who forces you to carry his pack for a mile, the way of silence in the face of accusation.

As a Lamb before its shearers is dumb,
So opened he not his mouth.

Jesus bore the full penalty so you and I could be set free.

 

THE POWERFUL LAMB
Jesus may be the worthy Lamb and the slain Lamb, but he is also, in a real sense, the powerful Lamb.

Many Christians find power a really difficult issue.

I myself found it difficult to understand. I thought that refusal to follow the path of power and of coercion meant refusal to have or exercise power.
The image of the slain Lamb in Revelation 5 also reveals the power of the Lamb.

If we go back to the images John paints of this slain Lamb, we see

The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

and again, we read,

10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

The seven horns are the first sign of his power.

The ancient Israelites knew their sheep, and they knew that a horned sheep could do a lot of damage with its two sharp horns.
A seven–horned sheep has 31/2 times as much power to injure you.

But, of course, it’s not about mathematics: it is about painting a picture, about drawing out the symbols.

To the ancient Israelites, and to many other peoples, a horn was a symbol of power to harm or to withhold harm, a symbol of masculinity, a symbol of being able to do what you wanted to do.

And, if a horn is a symbol of power, seven horns symbolise the perfection of power.

Then, the Lamb also had seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. He not only has power to act, he also has power to observe, to watch and to judge what he sees. Not just with two eyes, but with seven.

Finally, he has power to transform his followers into rulers, because, as the heavenly host sing,

“…10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

So how do we reconcile this with his refusal to use worldly power to achieve God’s aims?
Don’t forget that people often used to sing about

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild…

Jesus is certainly meek, and, in fact, he said

Blessed are the meek,
For they will inherit the earth.

To be meek is not to be mild.

The ancient Greek ruler, Alexander the Great, had a favourite horse, Boukephalos. He loved to ride Boukephalos into battle.
The reason he liked to ride Boukephalos in a battle was that, as Alexander said, Boukephalos was meek.
What that meant was that he was a powerful horse, but he held his power in check. He didn’t just lash out at people, but he followed Alexander’s lead all the time. He could run and turn and spring back with great strength, but it was always in check and under control.

Jesus, our slain Lamb, could have called 10000 angels, as the old song said. But he chose to die alone on Calvary. He had all the power he could possibly need, but he didn’t use it to oppress. He didn’t use it to coerce. And he didn’t use it to defeat.And this, more than anything else, has gained him a great following throughout the world.He is the Lamb with power.

 

CONCLUSION
The pictures of Revelation tell us a great deal.

First, it shows that, at the centre of God’s plans and purposes is not an army of angels, but a slain Lamb.
Yes, God is the God of heavenly armies. But they are his servants to do his bidding. But in the midst, in the central place, is the sacrifice who gave his life for you and me.

Second, it is this sacrifice which makes Jesus, our slain Lamb, worthy to reveal the whole counsel of God, and to reveal what is coming upon the earth. He is worthy because he has conquered.

Third, it is only through his death and resurrection that he became the worthy one. There is a struggle, there is a dying, but there is a victory to come — all because Jesus is our slain Lamb.

Finally, he has all the power and the authority to do the things he was sent to do. He is meek, but he is in no way weak; he is meek, but certainly not mild.

By his word, I have the victory;
By his word, demons shall
have to flee…

The slain Lamb has conquered, and all is well for those who choose to follow him.

May you trust in and experience his blessings now and forever more.

AMEN

[Rev 4: 1 – 11 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 26 Feb, 2012]

“I’ve had my troubles here below, Oh, yes, Lord; but still my soul is heavenward bound, Oh, yes, Lord.” The churches of Turkey had their problems, but what happens on earth is just part of the picture.

John turns from the woes of the Laodiceans to the glories of the heavens.

Chapter 4 introduces a long section about future events. In verse 1, John says,

Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

We can never get a true perspective on earth until we see it in relation to heaven.

There are three major players, or groups of players, in this vision of heaven.

• There is the throne of God.
• Then there are the twenty–four elders sitting on the twenty–four thrones.
• Finally, there are the living creatures around the throne.

So, let’s understand this vision.

 

THE THRONE OF GOD
No matter what happens on earth, God is on his throne.

A former deacon used to tell me that there is no hope for the church to grow: the time for salvation was past. All we could do was stay faithful until Jesus took us out of the world.
How bleak! His views infected many people here, too. People listened to him, and the church was dragged down.
I said, “What about the growth of the church in Africa, in China, in South America?”
“It must be counterfeit,” he said. “God isn’t in it, because this is the era when people will no longer respond.”

He thought his theology was more powerful than God. If his theology decreed something, it had to be so; even God couldn’t overturn it.

But here, in heaven, John sees things to come. And the God who is, who was, and who is to come, is on his throne.
What splendour!

…there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.
Rev 4:3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.

God is on his throne in heaven. He isn’t in the tea room, getting a cuppa while the mice play. He isn’t sitting at his computer reading all prayer requests.

God is on his throne. The future is secure.

We Evangelicals must wake up. We get focused on ourselves and on the personal relationship with God, and lose the big picture.
Is the Gospel a kind of portable self–help system? “Come to the front, say the Sinner’s Prayer, shake the preacher’s hand, and you will feel better, your girlfriend will love you, and your skin will look younger.”

People think, “It doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as it gets you good feelings, good loving and good skin.”

So Hinduism is as good, Islam is as good, Buddhism is as good, motivational classes are as good — anything, as long as it gets you what you want.

But the Gospel is about God on his throne.

God, who created a man and a woman for fellowship with himself, is the same God who called Abraham out of Iraq to become father of a nation. He is the same God who led that nation through the desert and through wars and struggles. He is the same God who focused his plans down on one person, on a baby born in a stable, and fulfilled all his promises to Israel in that baby and in the man he grew to be.

That is what the gospel is really about!

If you never received one personal benefit from the gospel, if it meant nothing more than belonging to God in this life and then nothing, the key thing, the primary thing is that God is on his throne, and deserves our worship.
If, at the end of life, we were to hear the just condemnation, that we have been unprofitable servants, deserving of hell, God is still on his throne, and his plan for the entire world is that we should worship and serve him.

The gospel is good news because the God who is on the throne is now bringing the world under his dominion; and wants us, not as robotic actors in a pre–programmed drama, but as intelligent, cooperative beings, working together with him to fulfil his purpose.

And this God is majestic and all–powerful.

Here we see him on his throne,

Rev 4:3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.

These different stones could mean many things. But most importantly, they symbolise God’s majesty. In those days, only the most powerful owned such precious stones. They symbolise God’s supreme rule over all.

But there is more to his vision.

Rev 4:5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.
6 Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

The most powerful things that ancient people knew of were earthquakes, storms and volcanic eruptions. Storms were the best known.
Look at God’s power. He is on the throne, at the heart of where the lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from. He sits on clouds of glory, ruling most powerful forces.

This God not only sits on the throne: he has the power to do what he purposes!

Finally,

Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.

John might literally mean that there is not one Holy Spirit, but seven. But that this would clash with every other mention of the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
Or he may mean the Spirit of God is seven–fold, or has seven different aspects.

One principle of Biblical interpretation says that, if you are in doubt about an interpretation, choose the less likely one. The reason is that people would rather change difficult things to make them easier, than change easy things to make them harder. Perhaps John means that the one Holy Spirit has seven aspects, but be careful, because this is the simpler interpretation.

Or else John might merely be saying that there is a sevenness about the Holy Spirit, in other words, that the Spirit is perfect and holy. That is, he may be saying in a figurative way that the Spirit is the Holy Spirit.

I lean in that direction.

But there is more to it.

These seven lamps blaze before the throne. The light of the Holy Spirit is no mere pinpoint. His light is like the light of a searchlight, seven times more powerful than any single light could be. The power of the Spirit blazes out across the world, and can’t be extinguished!
If John, if the churches in Turkey where he came from, needed any reassurance and comfort, here it is. We don’t know what the future will bring, but the God who is beyond time and space is on his throne. All power is his, and all is well.

 

THE ELDERS
The next thing we see is the elders.
The Bible tells us,

Rev 4:4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

We will see more of the elders later, but this is enough for a start.
It is as though God has gathered the elders around him, where he can talk to them and they can talk to him. It is like a council around the king — but an intimate council. It is face–to–face relationship. But

Who’s that yonder,
Dressed in white?
Must be the children of the Israelite…

— well, really, not just the Israelites, but 12 for the patriarchs and 12 for the apostles. Israel and Church united: the “middle wall of partition” broken down, to use Paul’s image.
The true, faithful representatives of Israel are joined by the true, faithful representatives of the Church. The two are finally united as one. There are no distinctions. The Israelites are not superior on account of being the elder; nor are the gentile Christians superior on account of Christ. All are equal in their white garments, like guests at the wedding feast; all have golden crowns on their heads.

Think of what this means. We are represented before the throne of God. Everyone who belongs to God is there before the throne. God is working out his purposes through the believing church and through the faithful remnant of Israel.

And if there is any doubt, you can leave it behind, because they worship in unison:

Rev 4:10 the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne…

So don’t see yourselves as isolated, don’t think you are foresaken, don’t consider yourselves alone in a dark world.

In that overwhelmingly bright place, where all power and authority are concentrated, our representatives sit, face to face with God as the Word was face to face with God the Father before the creation of the world.
And the other side of it is that, in heaven, God’s plan is already fulfilled:

With all wisdom and understanding,
Eph 1:9 [God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

All things united in Christ, all human beings brought into the same unity in Jesus our Saviour and Lord.
Salvation is more about entering this unity in Christ than it is about feeling good about ourselves or being happy or any of the other things we so often associate with salvation.

Imagine what that means: we sometimes get edgy about other Christians, and judge them. I was disappointed some years ago when two people who didn’t normally attend our church were sitting slagging off Catholics, without even thinking about the fact that a Catholic was right opposite them.
I know, and you know, that the Catholic Church doesn’t put such emphasis on salvation by faith through grace as we do, and we know that some Catholics are clueless about these matters.

But how many Baptists are equally clueless about grace and faith and salvation?

The Baptists and the Catholics and the Uniting people and the Quakers and so on who are true believers are represented there in heaven; and heaps of people who talk about heaven have no part in that heavenly scene.

And our task, among others, is to reach them for Christ. It’s that simple.

However, aren’t you encouraged and relieved, isn’t it a great joy, when you hear that we are represented every moment of every day before the face of our heavenly Father?

 

THE LIVING CREATURES
The final group around the throne are the living creatures.
As we see in Revelation,

In the centre, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.
Rev 4:7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.
8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”

Repeatedly, the New Testament tells how all of the creation will ultimately join with us believers in the joyous celebration of salvation.
In Roman, Paul says that the whole creation waits in eager anticipation for the revelation of God’s children.
So here are representatives of powerful living beings, always surrounding the heavenly throne, always ready to praise and worship and honour our God.
But they are also what Isaiah saw,

I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Isa 6:2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
Isa 6:3 And they were calling to one another…

Isaiah didn’t see their faces. All he saw was their shapes, because their faces and feet were covered. What he glimpsed is now fully revealed. The Seraphim are creatures, but they represent the power and authority and might of our God.

In the original Hebrew, they are called seraphim, which is the plural of saraph, a relatively uncommon word meaning, “serpent.”
It seems to be a reference to how lightning seems to snake through the air, and a reference to the power or lightning.
But the other place where the word appears in the Bible is the mention of the bronze snake that Moses put on a pole to heal all who were bitten by snakes.

The snake power, the lightning power associated with God is good and gracious, not malevolent and unforgiving.

And this power surrounds God’s throne: to get close to God, you have to get close to that power.
The power of grace and of mercy and of forgiveness surrounds the place of God.

 

CONCLUSION

“Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

That’s the word John hears as he is welcomed into the centre of heaven.
What must take place?

First, we saw the throne of God. What must take place after this is that God will rule. It doesn’t guarantee us a trouble free existence, but it guarantees us that the God whose eye is on the sparrow has his eye on you and me and on his church throughout time and space. It guarantees that he will not let you go.

Second, we saw the elders around the throne, and we know from that that the whole people of God are represented in the throne room, Jews and Gentliles together: all who come by grace and faith are bound in a unity guaranteed by Jesus our Lord. God can never forget his people, no matter how far into the future you project these things.

Finally, we saw the living beings around the throne, surrounding God with all power, authority, glory and might, beings of great power, but beings also who are totally devoted to the God they serve.

What must take place after this?
We are given no detail, but what we see is a God who is enthroned to rule, a God who hears our needs, and a God of great and gracious power.
God is on his throne and all is not well with the earth; but he will never be defeated and he will never forget our needs, never in all of eternity.

Let’s praise our God and live to his glory, now and forever more!

AMEN

[Rev 2: 18 – 3:22 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 19 February, 2012]

CHURCHES IN Australia rarely see outright attacks, though it can happen. For example, in the lead up to the Iraq invasion, Muslim youths vandalised St Andrews Cathedral, thinking it was a synagogue.

That doesn’t mean that life will be easy, though. We have to be prepared. And the more we do God’s will, the more we will have to face opposition. It is a fact of life: when anyone changes, the most likely reaction of the majority of people is to attack.
We see four churches in today’s passage. One is under attack from inside; one is under attack from outside; two are under attack from their own diseases.
I want us to see how this works, so we are ready. And I want to begin with Philadelphia, because it is facing external pressures and, frankly, this is sometimes the most painful, yet the simplest, situation.
Then we will see Thyatira, which is facing internal attacks: someone within the congregation is destroying the church from within.
Finally there are two churches, Sardis and Laodicea, which are under attack from their own diseases. If Thyatira has a tapeworm or a bullet lodged in some inner organ, sapping the life, Sardis and Laodicea have generalised infections, or some auto–immune disease like lupus, permeating and penetrating every part.

 

EXTERNAL PRESSURE
So we begin with Philadelphia.
Jesus says,

Rev 3:8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.
10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

The Philadelphian church is struggling with opposition from outside. We are used to the idea that Jewish synagogues are mostly small, scattered and quiet. It would be rare to see a riot at one, and you would never see the local Jews streaming onto the streets to break down some other group’s buildings.
In those days, though, Synagogues were much more noticeable, and, across the Roman world, riots were quite common.

You might have heard of the Pax Romana — the Roman Peace — but realise that it was maintained by heavy–handed control. Living under the Romans was like living in Occupied France during World War 2. Their could be an army raid at any time, and you had no guaranteed legal protection if you were not a Roman citizen.

People jealously guarded their rights and privileges, and violently defended them.

So it wasn’t at all uncommon for Jews to riot against Christians, particularly if the Christians were taking people away from the Synagogue.
Later, as Christians became more numerous, the riots sometimes went the other way, but that had to wait for a hundred or more years.

So the Christians in Philadelphia were under attack from the local Jews. It doesn’t mean that all Jews are aggressive towards Christians, of course. This was a local situation.

But you need to see what this kind of attack does.
Yes: it is a form of terrorism. The idea is to frighten people into submission.
It might be a fear of physical suffering; it might be a fear of being boycotted, and not being able to buy the basics needed for survival; it might be fear of being ostracised, of being cut off from others. People aiming to terrify will try whatever they can until they find something that works.

If we give in when some outside group is trying to keep us from functioning, then they will try more things to make it harder and harder until we go away.

On the other hand, if we resist like the church at Smyrna had to, we will find benefits.
Jesus knows what these people in Philadelphia are really like. He says to them,

Rev 3:8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

They might be small and struggling, but the door is open, the way ahead is clear; no one can stop them if they choose to go through.

And look at all these “I wills”!

• I will make them come and fall down at your feet
• I will make them acknowledge that I have loved you.
• Since you have kept my command to endure patiently,
  I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
• I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
  Those who are victorious I will make pillars in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it.
• I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God;
• I will also write on them my new name.

They might face nasty neighbours, but Jesus is in control, and they will find by experience that he is in control.

In that experience of persecution, they will be driven closer together: they will have to support each other to survive.
In that experience of persecution, they will see clearly how much they belong to each other, and will see clearly that they don’t belong to the world–system, no matter how it reveals itself.
It will be painful, but it can lead to growth and Jesus will care for them if they let him.

 

INTERNAL ATTACKS
If we shift to Thyatira, though, we see a very different situation, where evil is at work in their midst, undermining all they do.

I have seen this kind of thing at work in churches. Not — as far as I know — the sexual sin they were troubled by, but that’s really the outside skin of the problem.

One man caused trouble in half a dozen churches; he constantly undermined pastors and leaders who didn’t do what he wanted.
I have met two dozen people he forced out of churches. Some were so badly hurt that they left church involvement entirely.

Then I met another man, pretty much like him. He had had a short stay on the mission field and had bullied a co–worker entirely out of the mission, and she was to scared to tell.
Guess what? I accidentally discovered that these two men were mates.

Then I met another man, a bit different, but still causing trouble wherever he went.
He and the second man I mentioned were mates.

There was a little informal gang of trouble makers going around the churches.

Trouble makers don’t have to be men, of course. In Thyatira, a woman was to blame.
Here’s what Jesus says:

Rev 2:20 …I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

These people are about getting power. And they get it by giving people something they want in exchange for submission.

It is like when Jesus was tempted in the desert. Satan offered him food — enough for himself and enough to buy the votes of everyone in Jerusalem. Satan offered him a way to awe the people into submission, by flying off the roof of the temple. Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world.
There was just one catch: Satan demanded that Jesus should bow down and worship him.

This woman claims to be a prophet. The first man I mentioned claimed to be an evangelist; the second man claimed to be a missionary; the third man: I think he saw himself as an apostle. But they all offer something in exchange for submission.

This woman in Thyatira isn’t just offering sex. She is offering the people an idea, that they are superior to all those people who think morality is important. They are above all those things. They can do what they like, because they are saved.
It’s lies, but it’s tempting.
And what this woman requires is that they acknowledge her leadership.

In the same way, those men I mentioned offered their churches things like bigger congregations, an energetic worker, someone with wide contacts, a reputation in their district.

All of these are good things, but if the price is surrender to control by someone whose goal is his own power and glory, then the price is too high.

There is only one Lord. That’s why we Baptists emphasise that each believer not only has the right, but also the responsibility to read and interpret God’s word. That’s why we Baptists try to share authority in the church among the members and ensure that no one has too much power.

But people still give away power to those who attack from within, and churches get comfortable with being manipulated.You might remember the visit we had from David Ayliffe, and the story of his falling into a cult run by an evil woman. She effectively took over an Anglican church and took a large part of the congregation with her when she left.

It’s the same thing, and we have to recognise it and fight against it as soon as we can, or else more and more people get sucked in.

 

OWN DISEASES
Finally, there are the churches at Sardis and Laodicea. A Sardis church can easily become a Laodicea church.

Jesus says this about Sardis:

3:1b I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

He also says,

Rev 3:4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.

In other words, there are many whose clothes are well–and–truly soiled. The image is of someone in a dead drunken stupor who has wet himself or worse in his sleep, and just isn’t alert enough to do anything about it.

And this is typical of the Sardis church.

But move on to Laodicea, and things are even worse. He says,

Rev 3:15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

And he adds:

Rev 3:17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Sardis might still wake up and see their own plight; Laodicea is so smugly pleased with itself that Jesus is on the verge of giving up on them.

I know a chap who was a heavy drinker and had all the unpleasant habits that go with it: noisy, abusive, violent, sometimes dragged home by his mates and left to sleep it off on the front step.
One day his daughter confronted him. “Is this what we will always have to live with, Daddy?”
It cut him to the quick. He repented, he dealt with his drinking, and now he is a happy man with a happy family. Now is a pleasure to meet him and his wife and children.

Jesus tells the churches at Sardis and Laodicea to wake up, to repent, to be earnest about their faith.
Sick churches can become healthy, but it takes action on their part.

 

CONCLUSION
As we come to the end of this section of Revelation, we still need to see it as a book of hope.

If we face opposition from outside, we can still move ahead.

Sometimes the opposition we receive is not the kind of violence and abuse that the church in Philadelphia experienced, but we can still have discouragements thrown in our way. They don’t want us to succeed, so they set up regulations to make it hard; they ignore our right to pursue our aims, and cut back the rights of churches while they give everything to businesses.

But we can keep Jesus’ command to endure patiently; we can hold on to what we have, so that no one will take our crown.
We can be victorious, standing as pillars in the temple of God. We can bear the name of God and the name of the new Jerusalem, and the new name of Jesus himself. It’s like getting a new TV and inscribing it with your name, except that we belong to Jesus, and we are labelled three times: we belong to God the Father, we belong to the coming city of God, and we belong to Jesus, our Lord and master. You can’t do much better than that.

But some churches are fighting against evil within.
It is vital, of course, to resist when they encourage us to join in their evil, but did you notice this? Jesus deals with them. And that is what happened to those men I told you about. They didn’t succeed in their plans. But the more we play along, the longer it takes for the Lord to sort them out.

Do you remember the parable of the wheat and the weeds? Mostly, we are not to weed out the weeds, but Jesus knows which ones are his, and he knows what to preserve.

For the rest of us, who do not hold to evil teaching and who resist Satan’s secrets, the task is simple: Jesus tells us to hold on to what we have until he comes. These people struggle for power and authority, but listen to Jesus‘ promise:

Rev 2:26 To those who are victorious and do my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — 27 they ‘will rule them with an iron sceptre and will dash them to pieces like pottery’ — just as I have received authority from my Father.

Isn’t that a great promise? They want the power: we get it!

But there may be areas of deadness in us. There will be, even as we grow, and we must be alert to them. We can’t tolerate them. We can’t ignore their impact, because a Sardis church can turn into a Laodicea church, and there is a serious risk that Jesus will eventually give up on such a church.

It’s like when he sent the apostles from town to town: if they came to a town which refused to hear their message, he told them to shake the dust off their sandals and move on.

The early Methodists saw the need to deal early with anything holding them back from God. If they noticed that their joy, their peace, their faith and hope and love were all fading, they went to prayer, and persisted in prayer, until their joy in Christ returned, and until they were revived again.

There is a strong message of revival throughout these early chapters of Revelation.

Let’s be inspired by God’s word, and seek all the blessings he has for us.
AMEN

[Rev 2: 1 – 17 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 12 Feb, 2012]

JOHN’S PASSION is for revival in the churches around Ephesus. Chapter two of Revelation calls the churches back to a right relationship with God. Today, we look at the first three on his list.

If we read Revelation for no other reason, we should read it to find out about how to change our churches, because these early chapters are precisely on this subject.

As I said last week, don’t follow fanciful theories making these churches into allegories about stages in church history, as though we are on an inexorable slippery slope from the good post-apostolic period of the Ephesian Church, and ending in a hopeless situation like Laodicea in our own era.

That’s nonsense. It’s not how Church history has really been, and it also discourages Christians from seeking revival. It’s an evil theory.

What this chapter does tell us, though, is that a healthy church and an unhealthy church can be neighbours, a church can be facing all kinds of struggle in one town and another can feel proud of their wealth in the next.

 

Think of how different the communities are in South Marrickville and Earlwood. Very different communities, very different conditions for church work, yet you only have to cross the river to get from one town to the other.

 

Where John worked in Turkey, there was Ephesus, which needed to get back to where it had been with God, there was Smyrna, which needed to resist the pressures the world was applying to it, and there was Pergamum, which needed to deal with evil in its midst.

Restoration, resistance and repentance: these are things from which we can all learn.

Every church needs restoration, needs to resist the pressures it is under and needs to deal with and repent of the wrong in its midst.

 

RESTORATION
Many churches have serious sin in their midst. Many churches struggle with a difficult context, where the community is against them. But perhaps the most dangerous situation is what was happening in Ephesus. They had lost their first love.

Most other issues that churches struggle with relate to losing their first love.

Jesus knows all about it. We might think we are getting away with it, but he knows.

Rev 2:2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

That’s what Jesus says.
A church which has lost its first love might be hard working, it might keep going even when all hope seems lost; but the core is missing. It is a hollow shell despite appearances.

So, when hard times come, as happened to the church at Smyrna, a church which has lost its first love doesn’t have the passion to resist.

And when evil presses in, as happened at Pergamum, they don’t have the sensitivity to Jesus to make them recoil against evil.

 

A church which has lost its first love is a church on its way to losing everything a church should stand for.

When a church has lost its first love, it doesn’t care quite so much that Jesus is maligned and defamed by the world.
When a church has lost its first love, it judges by law and by custom, not by Jesus; it admits what the love of God would not admit.

I would be the last to say that we have to be in a confrontative relationship with the world just as a matter of course.

“In the world, but not of it,” they used to say. It’s true. We live in and accommodate to the world to a large extent. We need to get on with the world where we can.

But boundaries are important, and we need to know where they are.

“Thus far — and no further — and here shall thy bound be stayed,”

…we declare.

 

Our faith–based relationship with Jesus tells us something about where we draw the line.

However, the line should perhaps be drawn closer in than most of us allow.

 

You know I have a strong history background.
I notice that the people who have most changed the world have generally not been the nicest of people. They are often argumentative, determined, even intolerant. But their goal is to do the greatest good for the greatest number. And they get persecuted because they are difficult and because they are uncompromising, and because they are absolutely determined to make those changes.

 

If you think that Jesus is criticising the Ephesian Church for losing their first love because they don’t feel all warm and fuzzy when they sing “Shout to the Lord”, you don’t yet understand at all.

The kind of love Jesus means is the kind that never gives up, and never wavers from the goal of pleasing the beloved.

 

It is covenant love.

 

In the Old Testament, several prophets had bad marriages. Hosea’s wife was an adulteress and became effectively a prostitute.
A young women at this church years ago was like that. She even chased two men — complete strangers — up the street, crying and pleading with them to come and have sex with her. This isn’t just normal desire. The two young men realised it was so weird that they wanted nothing to do with her.

 

We need to understand that Hosea’s wife had a deep–seated psychological problem.

 

It must have been so hard to live with this woman. She would have been intensely self–focused, she probably neglected her children, she may have been a drunkard as well, trying to anaesthetise herself against whatever was troubling her.

Yet Hosea remained faithful to her, kept going out after her and bringing her back.
He saw in his own trials and in his response to them a picture of God’s attitude to his people when we sin, when we fall short.

God never lets go.

And that is what God’s love is like, and that is the kind of love Jesus looks for in us.

 

What does the Lord your God require of you?
To do justice, to love covenant love and to walk humbly with your God.

— as Micah tells us.
Those who love this unending, unbreakable kind of love are the kind of people Jesus wants us to be.
The question for every one of us to ask is, “Have we, has our Church, lost its first love?”

 

RESISTANCE
The church at Smyrna doesn’t need restoration, but it does need to develop resistance.

Of all the churches, Smyrna gets the most praise. It is a good little church. But Jesus says to it,

Rev 2:9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

It has little that needs to be repaired or restored, but it has to be willing to resist.

A few days ago, Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote an article, The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World.

She begins with these words:

From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith.
We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.
(Newsweek, 06/02/2012)

The author was raised a Muslim, but has become an atheist with a strong sense of justice.

The point of this attack on Christians is to kill off leaders and terrorise others into submission.

This is exactly what the Christians in Smyrna faced 2000 years ago.
And they needed to resist. They needed to just hang on with dogged determination, no matter what their enemies did.

 

There would be imprisonment for some, and even death for some, but they must not give up. Whatever love they had for Jesus, they had to hold firmly to now.

 

We probably won’t face Muslim persecution in Australia, at least not for several generations, if only because Islam is such a small part of the total Australian population.

Also, there are many Muslims in Australia who would despise anyone who persecuted someone else on account of faith, just as there were many Muslims who stood with the Copts in the recent protests. They said, “If our Christian brother Egyptians are not free, eventually no one else will be, either.”

 

But if we are persecuted for other reasons, there will be people who will love to join in because they have always wanted to persecute someone.

And someone who is poor and powerless will always make a good target, because they can’t fight back easily.

 

I was bullied in the workplace for several years. These days you would go to HR and it would be dealt with, but then you tolerated it or you left.

I didn’t let my persecutor defeat me. It was hard, and I nearly gave up many times, but I struggled through to the end, and eventually he left and I stayed on.

This experience has stood by me several times since.

Yes, Satan wants to make us suffer, and tries to make us compromise in order to end the pain.
That’s when we need to keep our eyes on Jesus and recognise that he still loves us, and will look after us in the midst of our troubles.

 

But sometimes the hardest resistance is to resist the little pressures. “Don’t be a wowser. Why not drink yourself silly?” “Come on: a lottery ticket won’t hurt.” “Take this: it’s for recreation, not addiction.”

Everyone is doing it, so why not you?

It seems a little thing, but some slopes are actually slippery, and you don’t always know where your own foot will start to slide.

The devil he has a slippery shoe
If you don’t watch out,
 gonna slip it on you
Keep your hand on the plough
Hold on…

What do we have to resist in our situation? Pressures, persecution, provocation — or even temptation?

 

REPENTANCE
Ephesus had to return to its first love; Smyrna needed to resist the pressures it was under. Pergamum had to repent. It was that simple.

…you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
Rev 2:14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.
15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 Repent therefore!

We don‘t know clearly what the sins were in Pergamum, but we know that here are people who are in many ways holding on to Christ, yet they allow sin to breed unchecked in their midst.
We can detect idolatry there, we can detect sexual immorality, we can detect heretical teaching.

Idolatry appeals to us. It gives our faith a focus. But, as soon as we use something to focus faith, we risk looking at the thing and not at the reality it is supposed to point to.

Sexual immorality is the misuse of one of the most powerful and important drives we humans have. Imagine if someone comes and says, “God allows you to sleep with whomever you want to sleep with,” and backs it up with verses from the Bible. You wouldn’t find it easy to dismiss that teaching.

Then there are the Nicolaitans. We don’t know with any certainty what they stood for, but their name means, “Victory of the People.” Maybe they were a radical political group. Or, more likely, they taught that Christians were superior to everything, so they don’t have to do right they can do whatever they want to do. Some cults are like that even today.

 

I don’t know that we have been much troubled by Balaamism or Nicolaitanism. But, if we ever have such sins in our midst, it is a response to the love of Jesus if we do confront it and deal with it — not harshly, but with determined repentance.

Years ago, a man caused a lot of problems in our church and eventually drew another church into the conflict.
The deacons did the right thing and negotiated with the man for over a month.

Eventually we brought the situation to the entire church. The church never said the man had to leave, but it said that he had to choose which church he was with and stick by his decision. But, if he hadn’t decided within 6 weeks, we would take that as meaning that he had decided to leave, And that is why he is no longer a member here. He chose to go elsewhere.

And that’s what the Pergamum church needed to do: deal with the sin and try to restore the sinners.

It’s the right way to go.

 

CONCLUSION
Every church needs to be brought back to the best relationship with God that it can have. It may have to resist the pressures of the surrounding world, or it may need to close off all association with certain evils.

But, most importantly, it has to recover its first love.

Jesus says,
Rev 2:5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

They may not have faced persecution in Ephesus — though they probably did — but they certainly needed restoration and repentance, otherwise they would certainly need to resist those pressures which would threaten to destroy them and remove their light from the dark world.
What does this say to us? How far have we gone from our first love? Do we need to turn around, to think differently and to act differently? Do we need to do the things we did at first? What were those first things?
There is still life in us, but we are so precariously balanced on the knife–edge of survival that it would only take a further loss of one or two people, and we would be gone.

Let’s earnestly and determinedly seek the guidance of God in our church; let’s seek restored love for Jesus, and let’s repent of all that holds us back from the blessing and power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Through Jesus we pray for full restoration, for resistance to all evil, and the courage to tackle sin wherever it strikes our church.
AMEN

[Revelation 1: 1 – 20 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 05 February, 2012]

ONE OF the most misunderstood books of the Bible is Revelation. It was nearly left out of the final canon, the final collection of New Testament writings. They couldn’t understand it, so they didn’t trust it.

 

The key to understanding Revelation is understanding what kind of book it is. It’s one thing to interpret Paul. He writes logical, connected arguments. You can trace his case from start to stop.

Revelation is a type of writing known as apocalyptic, and it is found mainly in Revelation and Daniel, though there are glimpses elsewhere.

 

If you read Paul’s letter to the Romans, for example, it is like doing a science experiment, or like working out a problem in geometry. Step one leads to step two.

 

For Revelation, imagine yourself in a Gilbert and Sullivan dream where, one moment

…you dream you are crossing
The channel, and tossing
About in a steamer from Harwich,
Which is something between
A large bathing machine
And a very small second class carriage;

The next moment that ship has changed into a coach and next you are cycling with the same characters on the other side of the country.

Or imagine you are in a multiplex theatre where the walls between the auditoria have fallen down, and you turn from a cartoon to a drama to a comedy to a travelogue.

Revelation is like that. It is not linear. It might talk about what is to come after this, but it is not a point–by–point account. There is no “first this, then that, then something else.” But, as you think about those ever–changing circumstances of your dream, as you reflect on what you have seen at the movie theatre, you realise that something consistent is happening, that these seemingly different images weave together like a Bunnings advertisement, into a unified whole.Until you understand this aboutRevelation, you will probably be scared off by the book.

 

This doesn’t mean that John isn’t saying anything worth considering. Far from it.

If you look at the opening words, he declares his purpose:

Rev 1:4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

It is a message to the churches of Asia from Jesus, mediated by John.

 

There was an old theory which said that the seven churches of Asia represent seven periods in the history of the Christian Church.

Surprisingly, it is held most strongly by teachers who would otherwise tell you to take the text of the Bible literally unless there is a strong reason not to. Where is the strong reason here? You really have to force church history into a very peculiar shape to make the theory work.

 

Traditionally, John lived in Ephesus. He knew the churches in his region, just like we know Dulwich Hill Baptist and Marrickville Church of Christ. In fact, he probably knew them better.

 

He has been praying and listening, and has the mind of Christ for these churches. But the message to them is a message to us all. If the cap fits, we are duty–bound to wear it.

But before we come to the churches, we come to Jesus. He always comes first.

Rev 1:7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him;” and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Chapter 1 of Revelation introduces Jesus, but not Jesus as we might knew him.

This is not the village builder, trudging through the dust of Palestine, nor is it the victim, bleeding and dying on a cross.

This is Christos Pankrator, Jesus, the ruler of all, the one who rose, the one who ascended, but also the one who is Lord of the Churches.

 

John always associates him with God the Father. In verse 7, it is Jesus, coming with clouds of glory; in verse 8, the Lord God is the Alpha and Omega. Remember this, because we will see it again and again.

 

As Paul also wrote,

2Cor 5:16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Jesus is transformed, his transforming Kingdom is here, everything is being renewed!

If you are interested in art, you probably know the art of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance: the period of DaVinci and Titian. You will have seen splendid depictions of the crucifixion, or the Pieta from the Vatican, where a grieving Mary holds the corpse of her crucified son. But go back 300 or 400 years from there, and the art changes. Its message is vastly different. It shows what people thought in ways you might miss if they wrote it down.

 

There are very very few paintings depicting Jesus on a cross until after 1000 AD. People were not so interested in the wounded victim. They focused on the risen, ascended, coming Lord. His death was not the main issue. Through death and resurrection, Jesus won the right to rule in the highest heavens, defeating death itself. That’s the issue.

 

I don’t say that his death and resurrection are unimportant, and neither did they. I am saying, “Let’s get our perspective right”; I am saying, “We diminish Jesus when we see him as Saviour and forget that he is primarily Lord. It is one thing to feel sympathy concerning his death on the cross; it is another to see him enthroned on high, and realise that he has a right to claim our lives.

 

Let’s see Jesus as the earlier Christians saw him: wrapped in purity, royally decked in gold, the white–haired Sage, and the mighty leader in all majesty, all power, all authority and all might.This is John’s image of Jesus, in his vision from Patmos.

 

Hold this vision!

 

John tells us that the risen Jesus is no longer what he appeared on earth, he declares that Jesus has a majesty far beyond our comprehension.

 

I’ve told you how Jonathan Edwards’ wife fainted and fell into her soup when she thought of the glories laid up in heaven: is it any wonder that John fell down as one dead when he saw the glories of Christ, the risen, ascended Lord?

One day our daughter was walking our little dog in Newtown and he didn’t notice a large German Shepherd coming the other way. Alex the dog looked up and saw this monster looking down on him. The big dog had no evil intentions. He was just curious. But it was too much for Alex. He fainted.

 

And John was looking curiously at these golden lampstands, when suddenly this majestic figure appeared. The blood drained from his head. How could he live in the presence of someone so powerful? He fainted on the floor.

 

The voice was trumpet–like, it roared like rushing waters; the brilliance of God blazed out of his face. Yet the risen Lord is a compassionate man. Look at him! He reaches out caringly and touches John.

“Do not be afraid.” he says, “I am the First and the Last. 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. 19 Write, therefore, what you have seen: both what is now and what will take place later.” 20 “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

It is all what John sees, what he experiences, and what it means to him.

 

The vision is a message to the churches from the one who holds the churches in his hand.

 

What do you see when you look at those lampstands? Do you see the flickering lamplight, the blobs of light in the darkness, a light reflected in subtle glowing colours from the golden lampstands? That’s the point. One lamp might might outshine another, but each is a vital point of illumination in the darkness of a fallen world.

 

Do you view our church as an almost invisible pinpoint of light? If you have ever really been in thick darkness, you will know how visible the tiniest crack of light can be.

 

During World War 2, the air-raid wardens went around in English towns, enforcing the blackout. There were no street lights. In fact, more people were killed by cars without lights than were killed by German bombs in the beginning. Not only were there no street lights, but people had to tape brown paper over their windows to keep the light from shining through. A night bomber flying at 1000metres could easily pick up a torch light and use it to confirm his location.

 

We might be the tiniest pinpoint of light, but it still shines in the darkness, and where it reflects from our golden lampstand, it spreads a warm glow over everything around.

 

We might be tiny, but we are known far more widely than you might imagine.

 

I’ve had responses to sermons from people I’ve never met. I’ve heard about our tracts from people who definitely don’t share our beliefs. I have heard comments about our openness to the poor and the outsiders from people who wish their own much bigger churches were more like us. People are surprised when we give instead of asking — when we go and hand out Easter eggs or packets of juice. They enjoy hearing us sing at Christmas or Easter, and some want to join in.

 

There is so much more we might like to do, but our light, even though it comes through the tiniest pinhole, still shines in the darkness, and the darkness can’t overcome it!

 

But this brings us to the question of whose light it is.

What did John say?

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus is the true light, and any light we shine is his. So he walks among the candlesticks, supervising the light; he holds the stars in his hand, the angels of those churches.

 

Remember that Revelation is not a linear argument. Things change as we watch them; shapes re–arrange before our eyes.

 

An angel is a messenger. The word, evangel, means “good message”. Angel and evangel have the same root.

 

Who are these angels of the churches?

 

The messengers who came from God at the birth of Jesus were angels. Are the messengers who proclaim the word of God in the churches also angels?

 

Who watches over the churches? Who is appointed by Jesus to watch from heaven? The angels who watch are in the hands of their Lord and ours.

 

Yet, later, Jesus directs his messages to the angels.

Rev 2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands…”

 

There is no need for Jesus to send a written message to an angel of heaven. But the person appointed as an “angel”, the person set apart by God as a messenger of Jesus to watch over the church — that one needs every bit of encouragement he can get. That leader — a man, a woman, it doesn’t matter — needs to know that Jesus has him or her in his hand.

 

Some of my Facebook friends have been in a discussion, and one of them suggested that Christians are too ready to follow some guru, some dynamic, exciting leader.

 

Another of my friends is a pastor’s wife, and said that, while it is occasionally true, it is pretty rare in her experience.

 

Pastors and other leaders aren’t appointed to be gurus. That is a position that plays to ego. But we are appointed as messengers, to pass on the word of God to the people of God. And it is important to know that Jesus has the messengers in his hand.

 

Of course later we will see that not all who claim to be appointed by God are in fact his appointees at all. But those who are his appointees are held secure in Christ’s hand.

 

Yes: by all means question and check. We Baptists believe that it is the privilege and duty of every believer to know the Word of God and to know how to access God directly, and you can and should check what I or any other leader says, because we are fallible and fallen, just as you are.

But Jesus walks among our candlesticks and holds the stars in his hand, and, while we stay close to him, that light will shine out and the whole world will see!

 

Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify God.

 

When you read Revelation, get the picture! Imagine how Stephen Spielberg would shoot Revelation as a movie, and you will begin to grasp what it is about. But it is a movie about images, a movie that bombards you with images, and you have to let yourself be swept up in them, then you will see as John saw.

 

But it is not just picture post-cards from the world’s beauty spots. Every picture tells a story.

And the story here is of the one who suffered and bled and died, but was victorious over sin and death and hell, and is now the ruler of the kings of the earth — the ruler of kings who has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve God forever.

 

So, whatever the world throws at you, look up! Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who has already run the race; he is the forerunner who has achieved the prize set before him, and it is he who walks among our lampstands and who holds our lives in his hand. Never fear, never give way to terror — Jesus rules above all, as King of kings and Lord of Lords; and he shall reign forever more!

 

Isn’t that great news?

If he is Lord, what better thing can we do than obey his word? He says,

John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — 17 the Spirit of truth.

It was good news 2000 years ago, and it is good news today: let’s take it to heart and live it out!

AMEN

[Ezra 10: 1 – 17 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 29 January, 2012]

THIS MONTH, I have talked about starting again and about being a simple church. I have talked about developing true ministry, I have talked about how we are all called to apostolic ministry. But a vital ingredient is missing.

You can modernise a house; you can rebuild it, you can extend or repurpose it. You can make the best house in the street. But without people living in it, what is it? An empty shell, an artwork, but not a home to enjoy.And churches can be like that, beautiful works of art, but empty of life.

 

The people in the Azusa Street Revival in Chicago at the turn of the 20th Century met in an old barn with a dirt floor. They sat on boxes. Public and press ridiculed them, but they were alive.

That is what revival is: refilling God’s people with the life of Christ. That is the final vital ingredient.

 

Yes: make loving God our aim. Yes: do what we can to love people. Yes: put your heart into preaching the gospel. But without the Holy Spirit’s enlivening work, all we have is good resolutions.

 

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD.

 

You can know where the gaps are that God calls us to fill, and the ministry to which he specifically calls you. You can understand the apostolic side of your calling and equipping; you can understand that we, ordinary Christians, we are sent in the same way apostles are sent. There is no difference.

 

But without coming back to life through the Spirit’s power, we are mere workers: wage slaves rather than children of a loving God.

 

The first time I remember hearing about revivals it was from Mr Weissmann, the Deputy Principal at my primary school. I don’t know what he believed, except that he had a passion for justice. He had to fill in when the Methodist minister was away, and he told us how the Methodists started. He told us how John Wesley preached from one end of England to the other, encouraging people to believe in God and care for each other. He told us how people who never went to church came to hear him preach in a field or on a street corner or in a church yard. Hundreds gathered. People wept openly over the wrong things they had done; some fell to the ground in a faint; some ran away shouting. But lives were changed.That is what we need. Not necessarily the various behaviours, but the changes. We need to let ourselves be so touched by the Spirit of God that our lives are utterly changed.

 

We are so small, we are so puny. Oh yes, we are nice: people like us, they ask after our members by name long after they have left us. But where is the transformation?

 

 

The Israelites were like us. They tried very hard to get everything into place. They rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. They rebuilt the temple. They brought their relatives back from captivity in Iraq and Persia, back to refill the land of Israel.

They wept with joy to be back in their own land with their own religion and their own ways, but they were not yet filled with life.

And people came to Ezra the priest. The leaders came with sad news. They said,

Ezr 9:2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

Ezra was really shaken by this news. He says,

Ezr 9:3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled.

You might think this is racism. It is not. You remember Ruth and Naomi. Ruth was a Moabitess. Another of David’s ancestors was Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute from Jericho, just to name a few.

 

The problem is not racial compromise, but religious compromise. It was part of the reason why Israel went into captivity. Ahab married Jezebel, and introduced Phoenician religion into Israel, and they forgot the Lord.

 

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

1Cor 7:33 …a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife — 34 and his interests are divided.

Those of us who are married know how true that is.

It would be a “Yes — but” kind of relationship. The wives would say, “Yes: we will do it your way — but surely there’s no harm in keeping an Asherah pole in the yard, off the street, where it’s just for me. Just for me and the kids…” And, bit–by–bit, foreign religion was taking over.

 

At the very moment when the Israelites were getting the structures together, compromise was in their hearts.

 

Sadly, we all compromise to some extent.

 

This week, I read a challenging story about a couple in Bidwill, Lisa and Jon Owen (1). They left their careers to join a Christian community living among the poor, helping addicts and the broken to find some hope in their lives.

 

The Owens have set up house in Bidwill. The people who have stayed with them have robbed and cheated and betrayed them over and over, but they still go on caring.

Jon studied computers and engineering at Melbourne University, and had to complete a non-science component. He chose theology.

In the theology course, he studied the Prophets, with Amos striking a chord. Jon said, “At one point God says, ‘Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.’ I remember thinking, ‘That’s all I do; I go to church and sing songs.’

 

“Was Ezra thinking something similar? Did he feel that people were attending the temple services and singing the songs, but that was all they did? Did it seem that they talked about God, but would take no hard decisions?

 

He was appalled.

He says in chapter 9,

Ezr 9:4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. 9:5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God 6 and prayed:

And Ezra prayed. He was ashamed about the sins of his people. All the punishment they faced because of abandoning God in the past, all the abundant grace God had shown them in bringing them back and restoring their fortunes — but how much good had it done?

 

Can you see it? Isn’t it clear, how like our own situation the situation of the Israelites is?

The people had everything in position. They had their security, they had their temple, they had their government structures. They were ready to go as a people. But God was not blessing them, and it was because their hearts were not yet where God could fully use them.

You remember that Jesus told his disciples to lay up treasure in heaven, not on earth, where it rusts and gets moth–eaten. He meant something similar. Where our treasure is, that is where our hearts will be.

 

We must seek the things which are above.

 

I don’t say — I would never say — that we are a bad church, because that would be a lie. But I will say that our hearts are not focused where they should be.

Jesus also said,

How blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!

As Søren Kierkegaard commented, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”

 

But these people, their hearts were divided. How, then, could they see God?

 

Didn’t James say,

…the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. Jas 1:7 Those who doubt should not think they will receive anything from the Lord; 8 they are double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James doesn’t mean that we must never have an intellectual doubt or ask a question. Only the deluded and liars never doubt. Doubt of that kind is on the pathway of faith.

For example, I might read something in the Bible, and I will say to myself, “How could that possibly be true?” That doubt is good if I study further and find out the answer and have a more logical belief.

But James is talking about emotional doubt, about letting yourself vacillate, about flapping around, so you never commit yourself.

That is what will not receive God’s blessing. Once you know what you have to do, you do it. You don’t keep saying, “But, what if…?” That’s the kind of divided heart which receives nothing from God and sees nothing of God.

 

Now look at what happened when Ezra prayed.

 

Going back to our passage, we read,

Ezr 9:4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles.

Historically, revival often begins with just one person.

 

In the 1850s, Welsh church members usually met for fellowship after the service. They often discussed the sermon in a more relaxed way.

A deacon in one church remarked, “That was a hard sermon, Pastor!” And he burst into tears. Almost immediately, weeping broke out through the entire congregation. The Welsh Revival had come to that town.

 

When Ezra prayed, people started coming to him, and trembling at what they heard from God’s word.

Ezra spoke plainly and humbly to the Lord:

Ezr 9:15 LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.

And suddenly the Spirit of God broke out on the people.

 

We read,

Ezr 10:1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. Ezr 10:2 Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. 3 Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. 4 Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

The grief they felt over their disobedience led to repentance, repentance which was shown by action.Too often we feel grief over our sin, but we do nothing about it, so no change happens.

Even though not everyone in Israel experienced the revival under Ezra, it touched the whole of society; because, when Ezra confronted the people, we read,

Ezr 10:12 The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say…”

 

I want to say some things about revival this morning.

First, remember that my ministry here began with a desire to see revival in this church. I started teaching on 1 Corinthians, as I believed it had a revival message in it.

 

Within six weeks of my beginning here, conflict broke out, and I was diverted for a long time from that aim — though I didn’t completely lose it. I am not an evangelist; in some ways I am not a great pastor–teacher. But, whatever it is that I am, I desire to see revival in the church.

 

Since 1990 or 91, I have preached over and over about revival, and I have encouraged us, whenever we meet, to pray for revival in our church and in all the churches of Marrickville.

But it hasn’t come, and I think it’s because we are too casual about it. We need to review our attitudes and pray that God will turn our hearts to himself.

 

I have spelled out what the core of revival is: revival is about forming a community, a group of people with a common aim and purpose. I have outlined that revival happens when people who are only pretending to be a community are confronted about that pseudo–community.

 

I have explained that revival only happens as people go through the chaos of change, and either push through the chaos or run away into pretending, into hypocrisy.

 

When you hear about people shouting and crying and running away, that’s part of chaos.

When you hear about outbreaks of anger and conflict, that’s part of the chaos.

 

It’s all about change.

 

And when the group breaks through, it comes through brokenness and letting go of the things that separate us, letting go of what holds us away from God, from Jesus, from each other.

 

It is the only way to revival. And that is what happened in the revival under Ezra. People came an saw Ezra and saw what was happening to him and, one by one, they were drawn into his grief and his repentance, and his desire to please God.

 

In this process of brokenness, the found themselves aligned, all facing in the one direction. It was like iron filings lining up under magnetic force. Get a few, and they just hang around the pole of the magnet, looking like an unruly beard. But the more that come together, the more they are aligned, until you can have a rod made of iron filings joining the magnets’ poles.

 

Ezra and God were the poles of this magnet, and the people of Israel became aligned between them.

 

 

It only takes one. It only takes the person who is first touched by the Spirit of God to declare that touch, to respond to that touch, and others come to the flame that one person lights.

We used to sing,

It only takes a spark
To set a fire going…(1)

Or, earlier, we used to sing,

O, Thou who camest from above,
The pure, celestial fire to impart
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart.(3)

It is true. One person can start the avalanche. A deacon tells his pastor, “That was a hard sermon!” and revival breaks out. Or someone turns around halfway down the street after church, coming back to get right with God — that happened in East Africa. Or someone says, “Our relationships aren’t right,” and the revival starts as happened at Eden, NSW, in 1967.

 

Don’t forget: a simple church or a complex church — in one respect they are alike. That is, without the life of Christ filling every cranny, they are dead shells.

 

Christ rose again: how can anyone be content to belong to a dead shell?

 

Get up! Shine! Your light has come — And the glory of the Lord has shone around you.

 

Let us seek with all our hearts to reflect that glory through repentant faith, through brokenness before God, and through renewed faith, love and hope.

 

And God will bless us as we do.

 

AMEN

 

1 http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/house-of-hope-20120118-1q62h.html

2 Pass it on, (c) Kurt Kaiser, 1969

3 O Thou who camest, Charles Wesley, 1762

 

[Rev 2: 1 – 7 Peter R Green, Sunday am, 22 Jan, 2012]

I AM still talking about the idea of being a simple church, but today I want to follow on what I was saying last week about True Ministry. You might be surprised, but I am talking about apostles and the ministry of apostles.

 

There is a strong idea, particularly among Anglicans, known as cessationism. Maybe you are a cessationist yourself; maybe you argue that the spectacular spiritual gifts ceased with the apostles, because apostles themselves have ceased. Maybe you say there is no room for prophecy, for apostleship, or for speaking in tongues. Or do you say that there is no healing gift any more, no gift of deliverance any more?
Cessationists find the essential qualities of an apostle in Acts 1. You remember that Judas betrayed Jesus and then committed suicide. So the church felt a need to replace him. The cessationists pick up Peter’s comment about chosing a replacement:

Acts 1:21 …it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

So, as far as they are concerned, an apostle can only be someone who was with Jesus and the 11 during the whole of Jesus’ ministry from his baptism to his resurrection and ascension. And that means that no one else can be an apostle.
But is that so? Consider the evidence.

There are at least three different kinds of apostle, or three different aspects of apostleship, in the Bible.
Sometimes one person combines more than one aspect of apostleship. Paul was both a missionary apostle and an apostle with authority. James was an apostle with authority and possibly an eyewitness apostle, but he wasn’t a great missionary, and so on.
So we are looking at the apostle as an eyewitness, the apostle as an authority and the apostle as a missionary.

 

The apostle as eyewitness
I’m sure you understand the idea of an apostle is being an eyewitness to all of Jesus’ ministry. It makes sense.
Luke records the appointing of the apostles:

Lk 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:

And he lists their names.

After all, Jesus did designate these 12 as apostles. He took them everywhere with him, he chose them to be closely involved in every aspect of his ministry.
There were others, both men and women, who spent a lot of time with Jesus in his ministry, but he needed to be absolutely sure that there was a clear record of his ministry so that others could follow his pattern. And these were the men he entrusted the task to.
Did Jesus aim to establish a church? He certainly set up the structures which make a church one feasible outcome. These 12 were foundations for a sound, on–going structure.

But it is one thing to say that these 12 were apostles and another to say that therefore there could be no others.
Eyewitness apostles might be the only kind, or, equally, eyewitness apostles might be a subset of apostles in general.

I am a pastor who also works for a leading Market Research company. Does that mean that the only true pastors are those who work for that company, too? There are other pastors not of the Roy Morgan flock!

However, on the evidence so far, you can’t decide one way or another about apostles.

But think about Matthias and Paul.
Could you even remember who got to replace Judas? The candidates were Joseph Justus and Matthias. But do you ever hear of either of them again?
On the other hand, Saul, later called Paul, calls himself the least of the apostles. But he never wavers from his assurance. He wasn’t with Jesus through all of his ministry. He was a witness to the resurrected Christ, but what else? Yet he was sure he, too was an apostle.
Some say the church should have left Matthias out and waited for God to appoint Saul.

Saul is a problem for cessationists, isn’t he?

I asked a preacher, “How about Paul?” He said, “He’s the exception that proves the rule.”
What nonsense! Any exception that proves a rule by breaking it shows that the rule is not a real rule. And if it doesn’t break the rule, then the exception isn’t a real exception at all.
Exceptions never validate rules. Would it prove the law of gravity if some people fell upwards instead of downwards?
In older English, to prove something is to test it. It is related to the word, probe. You prove a rule by probing it until it either breaks, or until the exceptions break.

Paul is an exception to the rule about all apostles being eyewitnesses to every part of Jesus’ ministry from his baptism to his resurrection and ascension. He probes the rule and shows that it is broken, that it isn’t a real rule. He is one apostle who doesn’t fit that mould.

And what about the many other apostles?
In today’s passage, the Lord Jesus commends the Ephesian church. He says,

Rev 2:2…I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

If the only apostles were the eleven plus Matthias plus Paul, anyone could pick a false apostle. If you weren’t one of those 13 people you couldn’t be an apostle. There’d be no need to test apostles! You’d know straight off.

There’d have been a booming market for fake IDs for St Peter and St John, wouldn’t there? But people could still check easily.

Even today, when someone pops up with a grand plan, don’t we check? Google is your friend! We did it with some of the difficult people we have had around our church. It’s just good sense.
Clearly enough people went around claiming to be apostles, that the church at Ephesus had to research them and see who they really were and what they had done in other places.

Every church has to test those who claim to be apostles.

But there is a truth in the idea of the apostle as eyewitness. That truth is that all who are apostles must have a testimony about their own experience of Jesus.

 

The apostle as authority
In Ephesians 4, Paul writes,

Eph 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…

If you think about it, Paul clearly has some kind of ongoing apostolic ministry in mind.
For the church to be built up takes apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor–teachers.
But can anyone say that the apostles did their work in the first century, and now they are gone, that we have been left without that vital ministry for repairing saints?

What about prophets? Have they gone? Even some pretty hard–line conservatives admit to detecting was a whiff of prophecy about one or two famous preachers.

But no one ever says that God has finished with evangelists or pastor–teachers. Who wants to get rid of them? After all, most who teach against apostles are also pastors.

Isn’t it strange that Paul names the leaders necessary for ongoing results in the church, and doesn’t warn us that half of them will die out and disappear? Was he so dim that he thought the church would be gone in his own lifetime?

Jesus is certainly coming back. But Paul was building for eternity, not just for the next 10 years.

And, to do this work, an apostle needs authority, not to get his or her own way, or to lord it over anyone: they use it to build the church up. It’s an authority which comes with compassion and insight and the wisdom of Christ.
In Matthew’s gospel, we read,

Mt 10:1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

and he goes on to name the rest.
However, the authority of apostles didn’t stop at driving out spirits and healing diseases.
The Ephesians would have had no trouble with false apostles if all an apostle did was heal and deliver from demons. It was misuse of authority that troubled them. Apostles come with authority, and so do bad people.

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas reach Lycaonia and are treated like gods, because of the power and authority they displayed. We read,

Acts 14:14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting…

Paul also mentioned his apostolic prerogatives when he wrote to the Thessalonians:

1Thess 2:6 We were not looking for praise from any human being, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our prerogatives.

The fact is that the apostles had authority to direct and to correct; they were the ones who knew what Jesus was like, and what he would want of the church, and who were authorised to bring things into line.
We all need to be brought into line from time to time.

Wasn’t John Wesley an apostolic figure? He cut to the basics of Christian faith, and didn’t waffle around the fringes. He preached Christ crucified, and that was enough.

But these super apostles who dogged Paul’s footsteps merely wanted to force the church to serve them, and that’s not what it’s about.
A good church does serve its leaders, but truly Christian leaders — apostles or whatever — don’t exist to be served.

If you want to be great in God’s kingdom
Learn to be the servant of all.

We do need people with authority, but not people who bully or coerce. Using money or gifts or bullying to persuade others might get numbers, but it’s not apostleship. Those who follow in the footsteps of apostles see what is happening, state the case, and show us the changes to make to follow Jesus properly.

All who are apostles use their authority to build the church — and don’t forget that we all have authority.

 

Apostle as missionary
The third main kind of apostle functions as a missionary.

When the Holy Spirit told the leaders in Antioch to set aside Barnabas and Saul for the ministry to which he had appointed them, it was to start reaching out to new places, places where the gospel hadn’t gone before.

Philip and Peter had shown that Samaritans and Romans could respond to the Gospel; Barnabas and Saul went out to take the Gospel to people in Asia Minor.
This is exactly what Jesus had called them to do. And he calls you and me to take the gospel out, too.
In John 17, Jesus prays:

Jn 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jn 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have pointed it out before, but I point it out again, that Jesus, in that 18th verse, uses an unusual verb. The usual Greek for send is pempo (πεμπω); in this verse, Jesus says, apostello (αποστελλω). It is the verb behind the word, apostle.

Jesus says, literally,

In the same way that you apostled me into the world, that is how I have apostled them into the world.

Just so we don’t say, “He is talking about a superior class, he is talking about the 11, and certainly not about me,” he goes on,

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message…”

It isn’t just for the few: his entire prayer is for all of us, and the reason he prays like this for all of us is to establish unity.
Some apostles are eyewitnesses, and that fact needs to be recognised. some apostles have particular authority, because they can see what is going on and know what the Lord is saying to the church, and that should be respected. But all of us are, in the final analysis, apostles. All of us are sent in the same way that Jesus was sent. All of us are here to repeat, in a small way, the life of Jesus, and all of us are here to do that in the unity of the Spirit and to the glory of God.

 

Conclusion
So this brings us to a point.
You — you and I — are apostles. Don’t let anyone talk you out of that or bring you to a lesser self–understanding.
Alright, there may be aspects of apostleship that we don’t all get. None of us is an eyewitness to everything Jesus did and said, but all of us are witnesses; none of us is an authority throughout the church, but all of us have some authority to see the truth of God and to proclaim it — inside the church as well as outside it.

But all of us are are sent in an apostolic sense; all of us are appointed and equipped, not to lord it over anyone, but to declare with confidence and the authority of informed faith that Jesus lives, that God loves, that the Spirit of God still wrestles with human hearts, convincing of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come.

Did Peter go to the Gentiles with good news? We can go, too: go to people never before reached. Did Paul travel afar to bring in the lost sheep? What limits apply to us, then, who can travel in minutes where Paul took hours to go? Did Thomas plant churches where no one knew until hundreds of years later? Then do we need instant recognition?

Did the other apostles work miracles in the power of the Spirit? Then has the Spirit been so taken from us that we might not see some echos of those mighty deeds?

 

We had a member here many years ago who echoed what many Baptists have been taught. He said that there are two classes of Christian, the spiritual and the carnal. The spiritual are sent to do great things; the carnal are the rest. As far as he was concerned, he was among the carnal, and what could he do to change it?
What a misapplication of Scripture! But, also, what a defeating outlook! How could the church possibly carry out its mission if 80% of its members were only there to supply funds and warm pews?

 

A simple church is a church where every member has a role and a calling. A simple church is a church where the people love God, love people and preach the gospel. And in such a church, every person has a role and a function.

In the same way that you apostled me into the world,

Jesus tells his Father,

…that is how I have apostled my followers into the world.

If Jesus prayed that prayer for us, how can we possibly dare ignore or neglect it? He sends us: let’s get going!

AMEN

[Acts 8: 1 – 8  Peter R Green, Sunday am, 15 Jun, 2012]

IN THE last two weeks, we have looked at new beginnings, and we have looked at how to simplify and refocus our church. One problem with doing that is that old habits die hard.

 

Remember when I re–arranged the seating so we were closer to each other, and could actually see each other? It didn’t last long. We are so used to having the pastor do a show in front of the congregation that we struggle to interact across the room. Our model is the lecture hall, not the community meeting.

I know how difficult it is for us to rethink ministry. Yet it is vital for us to do it.

 

We Baptists talk about “every member ministry”, but we keep collapsing back into the  pre–Reformation model of the priest who does everything, and the people who watch.

 

We aren’t precisely like that. You are not inert while I do the work — far from it! I appreciate everything so many people do. Neph and John do most of the cleaning, John does most of the maintenance, Jay and Mouy organise the order of service, Divina and Mouy look after food, Mum hosts a Wednesday night a month… I could go on. Everyone, or nearly everyone, has a role and carries a burden.

We are like a well–oiled business where the boss doesn’t have to tell people what to do, because they do it. The system is well–maintained.

 

But that is not the New Testament model!

 

As we saw today, when the early church temporarily lost its leaders, it actually grew!

But there is so much to consider. We will have quite a Bible hunt this morning.

In fact, the leadership of the early church developed in several ways. For example, it developed through the emergence of natural leaders, or in response to a crisis. Sometimes it was anointed leadership, leadership that emerged through the Holy Spirit‘s direction.

 

 

Natural leaders

In Acts 1, we find the early Christians meeting in an upper room for prayer. It says,

Acts 1:15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.

17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”

Then, after quoting some scripture passages to give the church direction, Peter went on,

Acts 1:21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us…”

A couple of days later, they were meeting again in that upper room, and the Holy Spirit came on them in power, and they spoke in other languages. It was like a wild wind and flames resting on them.

Then we read,

Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

Do you see what is happening here?

 

No one said that Peter had to be the leader.

 

There was no ordination, there was no meeting with an accreditation panel.

 

The Church knew that Peter knew what he was talking about, so they followed him when he had something worthwhile to say.

 

Again, when they needed as a spokesperson, Peter stood to explain what was going on.

 

I know that some of you are quite competent to do that. I know that you can explain what you believe. I also know that

some of you may not be competent right now to do that, but that you could easily learn how.

Peter had an advantage: like nearly all Jewish men, he had been raised to know the Bible since he was a baby. Every part of Jewish life was geared to teaching the people the importance of their belief.

 

This is one thing we in the West don’t get about Muslims. It’s the same with them. Not that it touches women so much, but life is ritualised, everything has its reason and its explanation. But we get embarrassed to talk about the key aspects of our faith!

 

If you want to be equipped, you can be.

 

You can determine to learn some scriptures. You can write out how you became a Christian, and how it affects your life now — and you can learn it, so you have a ready answer.

You can talk to other Christians, and work out what is important to talk about and what isn’t. Too many Christians can tell you what day Jesus will come — they are sure they have it worked out — but they get tongue–tied about how to come to faith in him.

 

Not all of us are as bold or as ready to speak out as Peter, but that doesn’t make us second–class.

 

In the US, there is an unspoken sense that a pastor should be an extrovert, someone out there, someone always organising an activity, someone always with a project on the boil. There was even an article in the Christianity Today newsletter about how to cope if you are a pastor and an introvert.

 

Extroverted people are often natural leaders.

 

But if you are an introvert, don’t give up! An extrovert will go to people and bring them in; an introvert will be there when they want a quiet chat with someone who understands. There’s a place for both.

But what it does take is a willingness to act. One person’s kind of action is to start a ball game; another person’s kind of action is to mind the gear and see who comes by. There’s a place for both.

 

 

Crisis leadership

There came a time when Peter couldn’t be available for public ministry.

It was a time of persecution, and persecutors since the beginning of time have gone after the out–front people.

 

I read a lot of things people say about Christians, and one thing I often hear is the description of us as “sheeple.”

It is an arrogant and ill–informed slander, based on the assumption that people who have religious faith are weak–minded and lack backbone, that we are victims of people who manipulate us so they can take our money or gain power.

For centuries this has been how persecutors have attacked those they want to get rid of. “Destroy the leaders,” they say, “And you will destroy the movement.”

 

I was reading not long ago about persecution of believers — I can’t remember where — and the persecutors arrested a large part of a congregation, held them all, then let the ordinary members go, fined and imprisoned the deacons, and beat up the pastors before charging them with crimes against the State.

 

It was a quite clear and deliberate pattern. Frighten the sheep off, hurt the lay leaders, and destroy the pastors.

That’s pretty much what happened in Jerusalem after Stephen was stoned to death.

We read that,

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

Notice that it was “all except the apostles…”

The effect of the persecution was to separate the leadership from the members.

 

Of course, we can’t say for certain, but, if we look through Acts, we see that the Jewish leaders had arrested Peter and John earlier, and, in Chapter 16, we read that Herod had James executed and then went after Peter.

So my understanding is that the apostles didn’t scatter with the rest of the Christians because they had to lie low.

With Saul conducting house–to–house searches, they were too busy keeping a jump ahead to be able to keep among the other Christians.

But we read:

Acts 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.

6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.

7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many who were paralysed or lame were healed.

8 So there was great joy in that city.

Until this point, we haven’t heard of Philip as a preacher. But here he is, forced to move, so he goes to Samaria and preaches Christ.

 

Leadership often emerges when someone says, “I have had enough of this, and I have to do something about it!”

I was about 17 or 18 when I realised that a man in our church at Fairfield was doing a lot of damage, and hurting many people. I won’t name him, but he was part of a network of trouble–makers who have done enormous damage in many churches, including our own.

 

But he was an exciting preacher and a busy man who drew others with him, and not many even saw what he was doing as evil. I was one who said, “I have to stand against this!”

Leadership emerges in crises.

 

For the early church, the crisis was persecution.

 

For many churches in many places, it is also persecution.

But some churches get leaders who emerge because the pastor has had to leave.

For others, it’s because the church has to relocate. There can be all kinds of reason. But the point is that, suddenly, it is up to every member to make the church work.

The biggest problem here is if people assume that their task is to keep things going as they had been going.

 

In Fiji, the Government is making it very hard for the Methodists to function, because the Methodists have criticised the Government and become a de facto opposition.

They have to give seven days’ notice to the police of any proposed meeting, whether a worship service or a leadership meeting.

This is a crisis. But the Methodists apparently aren’t yet trying to set up an underground church. They are still trying to be traditional Methodists.

 

Here at Marrickville, we had a crisis when I stopped being full–time pastor. But I think we made the same mistake. We tried to maintain instead of trying to grow.

 

But when the church in Jerusalem was scattered and the leaders were left behind, the believers preached wherever they went.

 

I am not saying that you all should be preachers. It’s likely that most of these people were not good preachers. But you can imagine a family heading off to Beirut. The middle daughter turns out to be pretty good at preaching in the village squares as they travel north, mum has a ministry of deliverance, dad does pastoral care… and so on.

We are in a drawn–out crisis ourselves: what leadership are we letting emerge — and is it focused on growth, or on maintenance?

 

 

Anointed leadership.

Our last example is in Acts 13, where we see,

Acts 13:1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.

2 While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

These men haven’t always been recognised as leaders, nor are they people who emerged through any evident crisis.

The church is praying and fasting and looking for the Lord’s guidance. And the Holy Spirit directs them to set Barnabas and Saul apart for the ministry he has called them to.

 

Sometimes the Lord calls the most unlikely people.

 

In the early days of the Pentecostal movement, the Holy Spirit called the church to set a shopkeeper apart for ministry. The leaders checked him, and refused to recognise him.

But the call didn’t go and, while the leaders in the US didn’t recognise him, his church responded to what the Spirit was telling them, and his friends responded, and they sent him out — from memory, to Argentina.

A great work of God grew out of that man’s efforts, and, when the South American authorities wanted to maintain the power of the Catholic Church, the Pentecostal churches founded by this man’s work helped them see that they couldn’t keep repressing and persecuting people who had a Protestant outlook.

 

I remember a pastor in Armidale 40 or so years ago, who had few gifts, humanly speaking, but had a passion for prayer and a determination to see people grow in Christ, and did a mighty work — a man set apart by the Spirit for a ministry.

 

The Holy Spirit knows what he is doing. It is

…not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

 

 

Conclusion

We Evangelicals are all mixed up when it comes to ministry.

The key factors are that a person is recognised as a leader, is ministering because there was a hole where he or she fitted, or is called and appointed by the Holy Spirit, as recognised by the church.

 

But ministry, above all, is not really something for special people: ministry is something for you to do.

In the early days, just after the apostles, churches responded to false teachers by huddling closer together, by asserting that there was something special about their ministers, by setting ministers on a pedestal.

 

It corrupted ministry.

 

We imagine that something special conveyed by the prayers and the laying–on of hands in ordination. There isn’t. In fact, the word sometimes translated as “ordination” in the Bible really only means recognition. And the reason is that the closest the New Testament church had to ordination was baptism.

Any baptised believer was a minister.

Most of us here are baptised believers, and church members, so what is your ministry?

 

I am going to challenge you: look around and see who the leaders are. Not who has been appointed, but whom do you go to? What kind of leadership do they give? Who are the Peters among us? Who would stand up and explain us to people who mock? Who would be the first there if one of us flunked out of faith? Who would be able to answer a knotty question? Who are our Peters?

Who will be our Philips? Who would see a gap and fill it? Who steps in where there is a need, and what does she do?

And, above all, who is the Spirit directing us to recognise, and what are we going to do to help make that ministry happen?

 

You know that I believe strongly in training and education. But I am not one who thinks that training and education make a minister. These are the finishing touches, so that we can minister better using the gifts and calling we already have.

Churches have to change. Our church has to change.

 

Change or die; evangelise or fossilise; use our gifts, or lose them.

 

It’s that simple. The Bible shows us models for how to do it. Let’s do all we can to change this year! And God will bless us as we do.

AMEN

[Micah 6: 1–8  Peter R Green, Sunday am, 08 January, 2012]

FOR MOST of the time I have been at Marrickville — perhaps even before that time — I have struggled with the problem of what kind of church we should be. I have called for the reinvention of the Church. And now I think I see a way to go.

 

In the most recent issue of Together in Ministry, the NSW Baptist magazine, there was a brief article about the concept of the “Simple Church”. And I think it says something to our needs.

You probably recall that, on several occasions, I have preached about the things that are vital to the church. I have talked about Acts 2: 42 and the following verses, where it says,

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I have pointed out that this depicts a church fellowship where four basics are practised: Bible teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper and prayer. And these are still basics. No concept of a simple church can be truly Biblical without these factors.

But there is another way of looking at the simple church, and that is, that it is a church which has three basic concepts:

• Loving God
• Loving people
• Preaching the gospel.

There are several passages which fit this pattern, but I just want us to see that it is taught from very early: it is not some recent Baptist innovation, but something God has planned from earliest days.

Micah wrote perhaps 750 years before Christ, and here is the plan, set out in this passage we read minutes ago.

 

Let’s understand the issue. God is angry with Israel. They think it doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they give generously. They almost imagine that God can be bribed to look the other way. But, at the same time, they complain that God demands too much.

They seem to think that God will bless them if they pay enough. But they are grumbling, they are feeling put–upon.

It’s common even today. You find someone who takes on a ministry. It may be anything: preaching, running the Bible Study or the Drop In Centre, it may be running the youth teas or the pre–church pick up. It doesn’t matter. They feel they can’t give it up, or they will lose the blessing; and they feel they can’t bear the burden of doing it, year in, year out, Sunday after Sunday.

 

God says through the prophet,

Mic 6:1 Listen to what the LORD says: “Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.

2 “Hear, you mountains, the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel…”

God goes on and challenges them: “How have I wearied you? What burdens have I laid on you? Didn’t I do it for you? Didn’t I bring you out of Egypt, give you leaders to make you great, lead you all the way?

After all this discussing back and forth, God declares very clearly what he requires of his people. It is not the sacrifices that only the mega–wealthy could afford.

Mic 6:8 He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

This is simple church.

 

You might ask why this is important; why do we need to discuss the kind of church we should be? Perhaps you want me to teach about healing or driving out demons, and maybe we will. But the point is that we have to become a church that will attract people not to us, but to Jesus. People come, they like us, but they go again. And, to the best of my understanding, one big factor is that we are not really functioning in a way they can relate to. They can’t see where we are going or what we can offer. They don’t know who we are, because we don’t know ourselves — or, at least, we don’t communicate it.

 

When we had the people from other churches visit on Pentecost two years ago and I told them a little about us Baptists and where we had come from, many were totally fascinated, because they knew nothing about our background and assumed, like so many, that we are a recent American sect.

 

A chap visited mum’s place several months ago — from the power company or something. He saw her sign saying she didn’t want to change her religion, and asked her about her religion. He couldn’t believe that there is a kind of church that doesn’t get orders from bishops, a church where the members come together to plan and organise instead of being told by a pastor what to do.

We are here. We are all these things and more. But we don’t have a clear picture of it in our heads, and we don’t communicate it. People could learn from us, but they don’t, because they don’t think we have much to offer.

So let’s think about this “Simple Church” model, and look at Micah. Remember that a simple church loves God, loves people and preaches the gospel.

Micah actually puts it in a different order, so we will follow his order this morning.

 

Love people

Micah begins by telling the people that God requires them to act justly.

If we don’t act justly towards people, we don’t show them love. There are fundamentalist Christians in the US, and some here in Australia, who think that getting involved in social and political issues means abandoning the gospel. Far from it! A gospel without a social and political edge is an emasculated gospel. It has had its power ripped away.

What is true is that we must never allow our commitment to doing justice to become a way of bribing people to side with us.

 

I know a pastor — an untrained man — who does it over and over. Someone comes along with a need, and he rescues the person, but there‘s a condition: come to his church.

 

Love involves listening. If you don‘t hear what people’s real needs are, you will not respond to those needs, and you will create a mess.

But love also involves understanding, including understanding the bigger issue. I knew a man who rescued a teenager from a home where he was unhappy — but didn’t stop to find out that the teenager was under an order to stay at that home. It didn’t solve the lad’s problem, it only raised his expectations and then dashed them, and it caused a backlash with the man’s church.

However, that man was right in one way: love not only involves listening and understanding the bigger issues, but it also involves action. As James said,

Faith without works is dead.

We shouldn’t think only of the big sweeping acts of justice when we consider doing justice, though. We mightn’t liberate the slaves or reform prisons, but we can speak up when someone jumps the queue at the supermarket or sign a petition to treat teenaged mothers fairly. Justice begins with fair play in the little things. If we can’t show we care at that level, we aren’t really likely to do much better at loving people when it comes to the more serious matters.

 

Preach the gospel

Next, Micah tells them to love mercy. This is one of the more difficult parts of the passage to understand, because we don’t really have a good word to translate the meaning.

Underlying the word, “Mercy” is a quite peculiar Hebrew word, hesed. The nearest word in Arabic means jealousy, and some translations use the word, love.

 

Hesed is the love to which God has bound himself through a covenant with human beings.

 

Marriage is not a bad illustration of covenant, and, in fact, the prophet Hosea uses marriage in this way. Hosea married a girl who seems to have been very emotionally unstable. She took lovers, and ended up in prostitution.

Hosea had every right to cast her out. He had every right to accuse her to the authorities, and she could have been stoned to death.

But every time she went off, Hosea’s heart went out to her, and he brought her back into the relationship with himself. His aim was for her to have a restored relationship with God.

 

I am not one to say that a couple should stay together forever, particularly if there is abuse or neglect; but I also think that sometimes people give up too easily.

 

The fact is that God doesn’t give up easily at all. We wander far from him, but he reaches out over and over, bringing us back to himself. The psalmist writes,

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
For his mercy endures forever.

The Hebrew is

Hodu l’adonai ki tov
Ki hasdo l‘olam

There’s that hesed again. God’s mercy, God’s covenant–love, endures to the era of eternity.

If we are to love mercy, we are to love it for others, not just for ourselves. If we love our neighbour, we want our neighbour to know a right relationship with God.

 

Jesus said,

Blessed are the merciful for they shall see God

It’s the merciful who are blessed, not the mercified. It’s not about our receiving God’s covenant love, but about our passing it on to others.

 

Someone described evangelism as “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”

Two beggars don’t have to like each other to tell each other where to find bread: if they are bound to each other by a common need, that’s enough. I have had people who could hardly bear to speak to me still tell me something for my benefit.

 

Mercy, covenant love, loving–kindness — there are many words, but the same idea. God loves us with a ferocious love, a love that fights for our good, a love that hangs on when no one else would.

And people who love that kind of love extend it towards others. The seek to communicate it. They tell others that,

God demonstrates his love in that
while we were still sinners
Christ died for us.

That‘s what preaching the gospel is about.

 

Love God

Finally, Micah tells them to walk humbly with God.

It might seem, if we think how all of these points arise from love, that it is hardly worth raising the point again. If we love God, we love people. If we love God, we preach the gospel. If we love God… well, it goes without saying, surely, that we walk with God.

 

In one sense, it does.

 

But there’s more to it. Here is where our fundamentalist friends have a point. We need to keep re–anchoring to God. It’s not true, as some would say, that we should neglect doing justice in order to love God. But we shouldn’t neglect God in order to do justice, either.

 

One of my relatives was a very justice–oriented young woman when she was in her late teens. You could almost say that she was driven. But, while she confessed Jesus as Lord and Saviour, she seemed to lose track of what that meant.

Our youth group participated in the Smith Family Food Drive. We collected non-perishable food within the community for distribution to people in need.

When we had a clash between the Food Drive and the Prayer Meeting, my partner and I agreed to collect until around 7 and go to the prayer meeting. Robyn chucked a gigantic wobbly! “You are letting the poor down: you are happy to sit on your bums when people need help, not prayers!” She went on and on!

She and the rest kept collecting until 9 pm.

My partner and I collected more than any other team: we loved our neighbours, and we loved God. God’s work, done in God’s way, doesn’t lack God’s supply.

 

We have to be careful. Let’s ensure that we make the choices of walking humbly with our God. His way doesn’t always seem quite sensible, but it works. We think force and manipulation get the results: God works by humility and compassion. We think that sparkly things will attract people: God gives us a cross.

 

It is dangerous to think it is all about loving our neighbour or all about preaching the gospel, if we forget to walk humbly with our God at all times.

Loving God is a choice; a choice to which we must constantly and repeatedly commit ourselves.

 

A Muslim challenged a missionary. “We Muslims pray five times a day: how often do you pray?”

The missionary smiled. “The Bible tells me to pray without ceasing, and I try to make that my goal every day.”

 

The humble walk with God must underlie my love of neighbour and my preaching of the gospel, or else, as Paul reminds me, I am no better than

…a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

 

Conclusion

People sometimes think that I am obsessed with structures. I don’t know: I don’t think so.

What I want is for our church to be a framework in which as many of us as desire it can be as free as possible to do as much for the Kingdom of God as we can.

 

And I think the Simple Church model has a lot to commend it. It’s minimal structure and straightforward standards.

The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.

Please think: please, please, think: how can we best operate for the greatest benefit of a needy world?

Let’s decide to love God. Let’s choose to love our neighbour. And let’s make it our great effort to preach the gospel in the power of the Spirit to the best of our ability and to the glory of Jesus our Lord!

AMEN

[Exodus 12: 1 – 30 :: Peter R Green, Sunday am, 01 Jan, 2012]

THE BIBLE is full of beginnings. Genesis 1:1 opens with “In the beginning, God.” John’s Gospel starts with “In the beginning was the Word.” And, in Acts, Paul meets with the Christians at Troas on the first day of the week, the beginning.

I am talking about beginnings today, of course, because it is the very beginning of the year, and what better day is there for us to think about beginnings?
Maybe you think it is strange that, at the beginning of my 29th year at Marrickville, I am talking about beginnings. Perhaps you think I should be talking about endings.
But, if I talk about endings, maybe I would have to talk about ending the church itself. That is our choice.

I love a poem about a man named Palmström*, who was run down by a lorry at a street corner. The poem tells about how he resolutely goes on living, though he has to be wrapped in damp cloths to help heal his injuries. It’s a lot funnier than it sounds. Really, it is.
Over the years, we have been run down repeatedly, sometimes by a double-deck bus, not just by a lorry. And we have gotten up and resolutely gone on living.
Can we do it one more time?
If we can, then every account of beginnings is important to us, because, to do it one more time, we have to begin again.

 

Our story is about the Passover, when the Israelites left Egypt and returned to Canaan, the land where they had been wandering before the great famine that drove them as refugees into Egypt.
You remember that the Israelites had been set to menial work, living as virtual slaves, making mud bricks for the building industry.
They wanted to leave the country, but Pharaoh wouldn’t let them leave.
There were all kinds of plagues: frogs, flies, blood-red water, hail: they got the lot. As the plagues got worse, the Pharaoh would decide to let them go and then change his mind.
Eventually, God told the Israelites to get rid of all the yeast in their houses: yeast that reminded them of the corruption of sin. He told them to bake flat bread to remind them of the need to be ready to get moving. He told them to sacrifice the passover lamb.
Then God told them to splash the blood over the door posts and lintel and threshhold,, making the shape of the cross, so that, when the angel of death went through the land, and killed the first–born, he would pass over their house. God promised that, in the houses covered by the blood, no first born would die.

And that is what happened. The angel went through, the first born of the Egyptians died, and the Pharaoh was glad to be rid of the Israelites.

But that’s not what I want us to focus on today. I want us to notice something else: that the Passover changed things for the Israelites, that the month of Nisan, when they fled from Egypt, that month was now to be the first month in their calendar. This month was to be the beginning of months for them.
God’s great saving deed changed everything else. God’s great salvation was the start of a new time for Israel, just like God’s great saving deed, God’s great salvation through Jesus Christ, changed time for us.
We have entered the year 2012, in theory the 2012th year since God became human, since God entered human history as a little baby destined to grow up and to die for us and for our salvation.

 

When God acts, history changes.

And that’s what we have to think about today.
Jesus has come, Jesus has lived and taught among us, declaring the Kingdom of God and demonstrating its power, and Jesus has died and risen again, and our time has changed.
Just as the month of the Passover became the first month for the Israelites, the year of God’s favour is the beginning of everything for us.
Jesus declares,

Look! I am making all things new!

And newness comes about with new beginnings.

What this means is that we Christians have to be into new beginnings.
Satan lies to us. He tells us we have missed our chance. He tells us we are condemned by our past. What you are now is what you have to be.
And so many people are trapped in that false belief.
But our God is a God of new beginnings. Every year, the Israelites began again in the month of Nisan, when they remembered God’s salvation.
We Christians go even further. We have a new beginning every week, because Jesus started the week by rising on the first day.
We are people of new beginnings.
It doesn’t matter if we think about an individual or if we think about a church or a denomination or a parachurch organisation like Scripture Union or Gideons. We are people who belong to the era of God’s new beginnings in Jesus Christ.

Here is what Israel had to do.

•  On the tenth day of the month, each man had to take a lamb for his family: the right amount for each person to eat without leftovers or anyone going short.
•  They had to take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month. Then all the members of the community of Israel had to slaughter them lambs at twilight.
•  They had to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
•  That same night they had to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
•  They were not allowed to leave any of it till morning; any left–overs had to be burnt.
•  They had to eat it with their cloak tucked into their belt, their sandals on their feet and a staff in their hand.
•  They had to eat it in a hurry.

Many of the stories and regulations in the Old Testament were designed to point towards Jesus and how to live in relationship with him.
So there are principles for us here.

First, God’s new beginning begins with sacrifice. This is not just something casual, but has to be very specifically planned for, just as God had a plan before the foundation of the world to send his one and only son as a sacrifice for our sins.

We can’t have an effective new beginning without Jesus and his death for us. People argue sometimes about the precise meaning of Jesus’ death on the cross, but that misses the point. If you see his death as a sacrifice, if you see it as a substitution, if you see it as a call for identification with him, or if you see it some other way, that’s not the main thing. If you allow the death and resurrection of Jesus to change your life, that’s what it’s all about. It’s because change is about new beginnings.

I had a friend in theological college who used to remind us that there is no theology exam to get into heaven. And he is right. But there is more to it, because there is an examination, and that is over whether or not we let the death and resurrection of Jesus work in our own lives. What I mean is that we are not tested on our theories about what Jesus has done for us, but we are tested on whether we have responded to it.

The other thing is that everyone is included in God’s plan — but only those who are covered by the blood, only those who are prepared to participate, reap the benefits. There has to be enough for everyone, but the opportunity doesn’t last forever.
You can’t pop in next morning and say, “Oh yes, I have decided to participate after all.” Now is the day of salvation…

The new beginning of Passover required the people to get rid of the yeast of sin, and to face the bitterness of repentance.
Most of us know what this means, but some have paid much higher prices than others. Some of us have made serious mistakes in our lives and had to really put them away, deal with what we have done and with the consequences. It can hurt. I have seen people in tears about this kind of change, because it really hurts.

Others of us haven’t gone much further than admitting that we are sinners and can’t do it on our own. That’s a good first step, because God usually confronts us with reality as life goes on, anyway.

They also had to eat it ready to move as soon as they got the word.
When Jesus shares a meal with his disciples in the Kingdom it will be a meal of leisure, but for now we need to be ready to go.
As a Church, we are not as go-ready as we should be. We are cooperative and we do take risks, but there is something that holds us back, and I don’t quite know what it is.

So how are we going to respond?
First, we have to decide that we are beginning again for 2012.
This will be the beginning of months for us.
I don’t mean that our past has no meaning, or that we neglect the things we have already done. What I mean is that we don’t let our past hold us back, we don’t let our past define who we are in the future, or what we will do.
And that applies to us in our individual lives or in our churches.

It’s like in Revelation, where Jesus told the Ephesian Church,

Rev 2:4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Jesus is telling the church to go back to the beginning, to start over. They have to repent — there’s that bitter herb thing again — and they have to do the works they did at first.
And it’s like that for us, too. Go back to the beginning, admit we haven’t had it quite right.

But that beginning doesn’t mean anything without Jesus, our sacrificial lamb.

I talked with a man once who wanted to follow Jesus, and wanted me to tell him what he should do, what good deeds he needed to perform. He was like the rich man who came to Jesus. He couldn’t grasp the idea that being a Christian is about giving everything over to Jesus, not about doing some good deed.

I tried to explain that working on one thing is an easy way to neglect all the other things, that there are too many people who try to define Christian faith in terms of not smoking and drinking, or in terms of belonging to a certain denomination or church, or undergoing some ritual, but they are heartless and uncaring towards the needy or given over to all kinds of sins, as long as they are not on their list of prohibited behaviours.

We start with Jesus and his death for us all and for all we have done and all we will do, and all we are doing at this very moment.
His blood avails for me!
As a Church and as individuals within it, we start again by turning back to him, by re–affirming him as Lord and Saviour.
The final thing is about being ready to move. Paul had that great image of the Christian soldier in Ephesians 6:

Eph 6:11 Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

He certainly advises us to be equipped so we are able to stand, but we also need our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

When King Harold Godwinsson fought against Harald Hardrada at York in 1066, the English soldiers had to be able to stand firm and hold their place against the vastly bigger Danish army, but if they hadn’t been prepared to go, they would never have made the march from London to York to get them to Stamford Bridge, where they had to make their stand.

People used to sing a parody of an old hymn. The original words were,

Like a mighty army
Moves the Church of God,
Brothers, we are treading
where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine,
one in charity.

They used to sing instead,

Like a mighty tortoise
Moves the Church of God,
Brothers, we are treading
Where we’ve always trod.
We are all divided, many bodies we,
Fighting over doctrine,
Lacking charity.

And there‘s some truth in this, considering the church worldwide.
And there is some truth in it for us, too.
We are not divided or lacking in charity towards one another, but don’t we, ourselves, tend to tread where we’ve always trod?

I worry. I am someone who can forget all about something that seemed urgent last month, I can easily get tied up in something personal and neglect the Church matters.
But I worry: if I were taken out of the church suddenly, would we keep trying to reach out? Or is my presence stopping others from finding their gifts?
There’s a world out there that needs to see the reality of Jesus, yet, somehow, we fail to communicate that reality.
But it’s not yet too late to start again, it’s not to late for a new beginning.

So, my challenge this morning is to make this month, January 2012, the beginning of a new era in the life of Silver Street Mission.

Who will go with me?

Lord Jesus, I confess my sin and disobedience; I confess that I have not done the good I should have done, and have done unhelpful and destructive things.

I turn away from my sin and turn back to you. Lord Jesus, receive me and re–fill me with your Holy Spirit.
Teach me to walk in your paths, beginning from this day.
I pray this giving you thanks for the answers you have already given.
AMEN

* Die Unmögliche Tatsache, Christian von Morgenstern.