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Archives for March 2016

The joy of making disciples

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Last weekend we went away down the Coast and dropped in on some people we’d never met before. They were ‘acquaintances’, friends of friends so you never know how it might go. But, for four hours – us, them their friends and family spent a wonderful time together.  We laughed, we ate, drank, talked, prayed, healed and loved.

In a world that can barely seem to stand side by side for a moment, what is that drew strangers together for an evening of such intense joy? Well, behind it all stood the towering figure of Jesus, the divine man of such startling contrasts. Humble, simple, loving and yet forceful enough to draw together those who seek to serve and obey. The same Lord who demands total obedience is the one who gives total freedom in return. He alone keeps us together in love, in spite of the fact we cannot see it. It is not always tangible – sometimes it is just an experience, yet one where we know his presence.

That night as we sat around the table, each person shared stories from the past few weeks and they almost all centred around him, our Lord and Saviour. We told of others who had been set free when they too had encountered him, some who had been healed, yet more finding peace in lives that had never had any. We heard of night turning into day, death moving to life in people’s lives, all on account of this simple carpenter from Nazareth.

This is what Paul, inspired by the Spirit of God said of this simple carpenter, our Jesus:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

The one lesson we all took away from that night, is that given who he is, we need to share more of him. He alone is the answer to this life, and the more we share that with others, the more we see the reality. There is nothing trite in the phrase, Jesus Saves.

When we see what he has done, we can see why you would not want to keep such a thing a secret. Paul continues:

This includes you who were once far away from God.

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

For many people, the notion that there is a God who so completely and utterly accepts them, on account of what Jesus has done on their behalf is simply staggering. For those who have spent a lifetime under condemnation, it takes a while to sink in, but when it does, it is life changing.

It needs to be life changing for us who believe as well. May you dwell in his presence this week, with this carpenter, this King, this Lord. But let us also share him, this Jesus who saves.

Gospel of John vii

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“The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus‘ mother was there” – John 2: 1

Commonly recognised as Jesus‘ first miracle is the turning of water into wine, one of four of his ‘messianic miracles’ – miracles that supposedly only God could do. But the richness in the story here early in John’s Gospel is vast and belies its simplicity. It reveals some of the deep characteristics of God, traits that we have trampled on and made a mockery of over the centuries since Christ walked.

What is it about Jesus that makes him so compelling for the world, for us who choose to follow him?

A Palestinian wedding in Jesus‘ day was a true celebration; marriage was the joining of a young couple and the bringing together of great families. A young couple was brought together while being carefully nurtured into the surrounding life of the town, not discarded off to start life on their own in another place. Betrothal happened months or even years before, an engagement where the couple were already committed to marriage without the living together. There was little more serious in the community than a wedding, as the community understood the foundation of the family in its own survival.

Celebrations would last at least a week, and would frequently involve an entire village! It is worth reading more widely on the wedding celebration in those days, but God is no dullard when it comes to celebration – and there he is, right in the midst of the dancing, drinking and joy that carries on. It is we who have blunted the enthusiasm for God’s celebration, in our austere interpretation of the law and saturation in the ‘thou shalt not’ culture. Not so Jesus, who ate and drank with sinners, and immersed himself with everyday life.

This would have been a poor village family, lives tormented and tortured by the Romans and their own religious elite who dwelt in the more luxuriant cities, and for them a wedding was a relief from the drudgery and grind. The parents of the bride would host the celebrations, and central to it all was the food and wine. To run out of wine midway through the festivities was to invite terrible shame and embarrassment on the hosts and the young couple.

It is here then, that we begin to see a new picture of God, one who comes willing to us to remove our shame. In his display of such willingness to roll up his sleeves and be part of our world, we see this God – this beautiful Christ, so ready to come to our rescue. Jesus does the miracle, because he has the opportunity to remove the shame for a young Palestinian couple. He does not stop and ask questions as to their worthiness beforehand, the readiness to put right what is wrong, simply pours out of him throughout his life.

God’s readiness to take away our shame is a picture of the entire Bible, but in this Jesus we have the opportunity for it to be removed once, for all time. We get things wrong when we think God is the big teacher with the stick. For this ordinary family – for you, for me, we have a Saviour so willing to join with us in our daily lives, to walk, to strengthen, to help, to love. For many though, even especially ‘Christians’ this is simply too much. We prefer our own ways, to walk in our own strength, our own moral preeminence.

‘Do as he tells you’ says Jesus‘s mother to the servants. Will we allow ourselves to come under him today, this gentle, this lovely Jesus, the divine personality who has our best interest at heart. Will we trust him today with our lives, he asks us?

Gospel of John – making disciples IV

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“the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Come, follow me’.”  John 1: 43

In Miraculous Movements, Jerry Toursdale cites a story where a young muslim man hears the story of Jesus on the radio in a remote town in Africa. The man was so transformed by the message, that he went and told everyone he could about it in the town; he had nothing to add, as he didn’t have a Bible and couldn’t read, but eventually he found another old woman who told him she was a Christian. ‘Now we are two’ she told him. Without any literature between them, and the only knowledge of Jesus coming from what they had heard from others, they began to draw the town to Jesus. They simply told others of Jesus from the stories they knew and from this an entire movement grew.

Sally and I meet dozens – literally, of people who have sat in church all of their life and yet have no knowledge of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. They have no assurance. It alarms us – what has happened?

Somewhere along the line, we substituted ‘following Jesus‘ with learning more about him. There is no doubt we are to learn about Jesus, principally through reading his Word and being ministered to by the Holy Spirit. Discovery Bible Studies, where small groups of believers gather to discuss the Word of God are an ideal way to learn. Jesus taught his disciples, and Paul taught his newly formed churches in a similar fashion, and expected others to do the same. The problems come, when we stop following Jesus, and our faith becomes an academic exercise.

Jesus principally calls us to follow him; there isn’t a single reference in the Gospels to Jesus ever calling us to worship him, but on numerous occasions, he calls everyone who would be a believer to be obedient to his calling. A large part of that calling is to share his Love for mankind into our local community, and to make disciples in the process. Such a calling to follow Jesus is hard work, and herein lies the crux. It is far easier to define our faith by ‘attending church, Bible Study or weekly meetings’ than the far more esoteric call which demands, ‘follow me’. But obedience to this calling is central to Christendom.

There is a trend in the world, that is hidden in plain sight for all to see; where believers, often at great cost, take up the call of Jesus to follow him, and go into the world and make disciples, the church moves at great pace. God works, miraculous signs and wonders occur, and the hardest hearted of men, receives a heart of flesh from God. For example, Nepal is now the fastest growing Christian nation in the world, and small, organic church is the fastest growing religion in the world. God is very much still on the move, far ahead of us.

But, where we as believers decide to ignore Christ’s calling, and instead take the much easier route of teaching ourselves more and more about God, without ever really knowing him, the church stagnates. As we fail to obey, so God stops moving, and our growth depends on our own strength. Over time, as we see now in many places, our faith becomes a religion and our religion begins to gain political overtones. Finally, the coup de grace happens, when, in order to keep the doors open, we agree to say only what those in power would have us say, and we exchange the truth of God for a lie.

So where lies the West today? Many have mulled this over many times before the Lord. The answer, strangely enough, would seem to lie with us, the believers. Throughout history, God waits for his people to move out in faith, before he responds. But, oh what happens when he does. It would seem now that God is waiting again for us to begin to follow his Son in obedience, and to proclaim the truth about a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. There is resistance, largely from the established church – but many people in the West are beginning to take Jesus at his word, and to follow him as Philip and the disciples did when Jesus first showed up. A movement is happening again. At the core of it, people are knowing Jesus, rather than just learning about him

But, friends, here is the question, why would you want to live any other way? Our Saviour is calling us, each of us – “come, follow me”. Can you not hear those words, ‘well done good and faithful servant, come into my rest’ as we join the heavenly family for eternity. (Col. 3:1-4)

Would you have it any other way, than Jesus as Lord?

Gospel of John – making disciples III

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Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. – John 1:40

One of the most startling things about Jesus, and his entire life was his ordinariness. While in many ways his life was startling beyond compare, in another way he was so removed from the religion and elite of his day.

His disciples were ordinary in every way as well. In Matthew’s gospel, we see that most were fishermen, coupled with a bailiff (tax collector) and an activist plus a few others. None were lettered or well educated and none would have died of note had it not been for Christ. He frequently scolded them for being dullards, yet patiently watched them transformed, knowing eventually they would be the ones to kickstart an entire movement that has lasted to this day. Along with Paul (the only truly educated one) what they achieved transformed history and ushered in a new age.

Doesn’t it seem strange that Jesus‘ only real battles were with those who over-complicated God, and as Jesus pointed out, actually kept people further from him; they were the religious leaders of the day. The truth is, that the religious leaders had favoured positions in society, and were taking huge incomes out of the temple, by cajoling people with offers of ‘reward and punishment’ if they didn’t comply. The last thing they wanted was a renegade who threatened their position and status, lucrative as it was.

But history will show that such people are in fact further from God than almost anyone, and while they continued their practice of religion, ordinary people were being transformed from night to day under Jesus‘ simple teaching and loving touch. The ordinary, the sick and the despised, those who thought they never measure up – these were the ones who flocked to Jesus. From these ordinary people, the message of salvation and hope to all mankind because of a loving God, went out into the world.

Not much has changed really. Around the world, religion still competes with people for their money at least, and their forced allegiance through threats and promises of what God may or may not do to those who won’t comply. This elite has remained throughout history. But the real work is done by ordinary people, amongst ordinary people, gently reaching into lives with the same message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ, the only way to God.

This week I read of an inmate, with a 27 page CV (aka a rap sheet) who has so far brought over 500 inmates to faith in Jesus Christ. I read and hear of such stories every week. Rarely do such stories come from churches, with big programmes, money or leaders of note.

So what about me and you? If you are an ordinary person, or if for whatever reason you consider that God will never use you because you simply ‘dont have it’, then rest assured you are the very one he is looking for. He will achieve his best work through you, though you might never receive the accolades you deserve – at least yet. Around the world today, God is transforming people through simple folk, with seemingly little to offer. The transformation occurring through people with limited means, limited education and even limited expectation, is simply staggering.

It is often said that God does most of his best work away from prying eyes in the dark corners of the earth. That is certainly what happened in a tiny corner of Palestine 2,000 years ago. But nothing has changed. We the ordinary, can partner with God to achieve the extraordinary in the lives of unbelievers. The only thing more remarkable, is that he actually won’t do it any other way.

Shall we follow Jesus, take him at his word and see what he does? We may be surprised as those ordinary disciples were all those years ago. Come, faithful servants, let us follow him.

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