Archives for May 2017

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.  – 1 Peter 1

It’s an incredible passage, don’t you think? Last weekend, I went to a small meeting for those interested in disciple making. It was a time of learning, training, sharing stories and praying. We ended up eating together and the food was great. Go figure this though, there were just 8 of us there, from the whole of Sydney.

A few weeks back, I went along for a day to hear a little Chinese man, Ying Kai, also teach about disciple making. It would probably be fair to say that Ying Kai is honoured in heaven; several decades ago in his native China, he obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit and began making disciples of non-believers, training them to go out and make more disciples. As a result of his obedience, some 1.6 million people have been baptised into Jesus Christ, and gone onto found somewhere close to 80,000 churches. I had a lot to learn, obviously. Less than 50 people turned up that day too, maybe not so honoured here then.

The church has been neglectful and remiss in so many ways, not fulfilling the Great Commission Jesus so clearly gives us. We have come to think that the odd mega pastor, or hero of the faith (such as a politician) is going to be the way God changes things. It seems that may be just an excuse so we can avoid doing the simple lesson that Jesus left us with, which seems so hard. That is for each of us who believe, to tell those around us of the wonders of God’ Son.

It has been said that the word love is spelt O-B-E-Y in the Bible; it is difficult for us to show God, whom we cannot see, how much we love him, except by obeying what he tells us to do. Why is it we simply will not? Jesus set us an example, not by achieving a doctorate, nor by founding a large congregation of followers within a large building, neither in establishing an inner circle of liturgical priests. No, we are told to follow his example and go into the world and make disciples in his name. All of us.

Had we all just followed his command, and simply moved into our neighbourhood and proclaimed God’s salvation through Christ, I wonder how different our society might look today? For example, would God have needed to send Islam to challenge his frozen people? I am convinced – as I believe Jesus is, that the way to reach the world is to simply catch our breath, take a risk, and offer to pray for those around us, or to share the precious treasure that we have. Then to trust God that he will continue to work in the hearts of those whom we introduce to his Son.

I learned last weekend, that according to research, less than 98% of believers in USA have shared their faith with a non-believer. If it is true, do we wonder we have so little impact on our world?

We are learning to “do church” with a missional focus. I don’t want this to become ‘look at me’ but it is an opportunity to share with those who may decide to try something different. After 2 years, we can say with honesty that being a missional gathering, or a simple or organic church is far messier and disorderly than ‘normal’ church. To reach the lost for one thing, we must jettison our agendas. They set the pace, not us.

Our propensity to teach and to lead must also be sacrificed, as we try for more inclusion and learn to let everyone contribute, with the Holy Spirit as our guide. Also, rather than be a ‘knowledge-based body’ we have tried to be an ‘obedience-based body’ with an emphasis on training others to train others to train….you get the picture. We have a few gatherings as well, for different groups at different stages.

After 2 years, we now feel like we are making progress, which I might share another time in more detail. For example, this week we received a text from someone in our gathering, who told how that week they had shared a Bible story with a group of girls at their school, just in a random moment. The person, as they shared with us, finally felt useful for God. How good is that?

Friends, let me leave you with this. The passage at the beginning here, is one of the greatest in the NT, written by Peter. Look at what God has done for you through Christ. Yet, such riches are of no value if they are not shared. Christ cannot, will not, must not, remain hidden any longer. We must share him. While it is immeasurably hard, it is also so simple to do. We must do it.

Here’s a challenge this week; ask God to prompt you to share this passage with someone who doesn’t know about him. If you do, send us the story and we will share it here. An inheritance that endures forever, available for each of us.

Let’s not keep it to ourselves any longer.

Prayer is not preparation for the main task, it is the main task – Oswald Chambers

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. – Hebrews 12: 22-25

I have been reading one of the best books I have ever read about making disciples. Full of stories, method and encouragement, it has caused us to evaluate our own efforts in how effective we are in taking the Gospel to those who are in darkness. That, coupled with an intensive look at the book of Hebrews, which portrays the person of Christ with such clarity, has made for some good reading and thinking.

In the disciple making book, I read of a church planter who plants some 500 new churches a year. These are not bricks and mortar places, with priests and worship teams and a youth group, these are gatherings, Oikos, of new believers who come together very frequently to study and worship and be trained into how to find and make new disciples of Jesus Christ. A movement is begun. Some of the stories of what God is doing in far flung places makes your spine tingle. We feel in many ways, we have barely got started. We want to be part of that story here in our own little place in the heart of Sydney. Friends, don’t for one moment think that Jesus is on the back foot, scrambling to find a place in the world. Far from it his Kingdom is on the move and he wants us to join the work.

The church planter also has a vocational job which he works at during the day, before meeting with people every evening to further the Gospel in his country. Want to know what his secret is though? He prays each morning for around 3 hrs before work, and then another 2 hrs in the evening with his various groups. I was so staggered when I read that, it seemed beyond my comprehension. Yet, seeking first the will of the Lord in all he wants on a day by day, moment by moment basis is surely no more than what is displayed in Scripture. Christ did the same with his Father, and he wants us to live the same way with him. He wants to lead the way in everything we do, especially when we go out in his name. Whose kingdom is it, after all?

Further, the church planters who were successful had an army of others praying for them as well. In some cases, several thousand were praying daily for just a small group of church planters. The author suggested that unless you had at least a hundred people praying for you daily, your success would be limited. So, we will start looking for people to pray with us. It came to me as I was reading this, that there is an army of darkness that would do all it can to prevent others from hearing the Gospel. When you push back and start to do the work of Christ, opposition will surely come. Much prayer is needed. Persecution, opposition is on our doorstep here as well. Soon, we will need to choose which God we serve far more publicly than we do now.

On the other side though, God opens doors all the time. If we pray, then we should be expectant. This week as I was in another city, meeting with a couple who own a company on whose board I sit. I had been wondering whether I really wanted to work with this group of people because of the lifestyle they promoted, but they invited me to stay in their house. In the morning, as she was getting her daughter ready for school, out of the blue she asked me what I knew about Revelation. Someone, a friend of hers who was a believer, had given her a book on the end times and she was fascinated. We got talking, and in the half hour over a cuppa tea, I was able to walk her through the full Gospel message, which she had never heard before. When you get a chance to explain the Gospel, and why Jesus is so essential and central to God’s plans, the blindness is lifted and you can see the understanding that comes. We continue to pray, as she has openly said she wants to hear more.

As I was flying back the same day, thinking about that conversation the Lord reminded me that if we pray, we should expect the opportunity to come. Why was I surprised?

We are passionate about the task we feel the Lord has given us, and continue to seek his face for steps forward. It is not just our calling though, it is according to Scripture, a calling for all who believe in Jesus Christ. The passage in Hebrews reminds us that the God of the Hebrews is to be feared, a ‘devouring fire,’ yet because of what Christ has done, what is due to us will not come to us. Instead, we get an inheritance, an adoption beyond our wildest imagination.

Friends, the world must hear of this before it is too late. There is no time to waste. Come, let us pray for each other, and let us go and make fishers of men as He has commanded. I believe he won’t delay coming for much longer.

But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises. Heb 8: 6

Beautiful, majesty, glorious, matchless in every way (chorus)

After a long, intense week in the world, the other day I came home and quietly watched a short cut of The Passion. It brought me back to the sheer immensity of who Christ was, and what he accomplished in such a short period. When we are able to simply gaze on the person of Jesus Christ, and truly put him first, all else falls into place. The positional arguments that each of us has , “Jesus-and,” diminish into inconsequence, our methods, our doctrines all slip quietly away. All we think we might achieve appears marginal when measured against Him. Paul reminds us that even the faith we think we bring, is a gift from God.

For some, they discover the beauty that is Christ and give up their lives for him. Surely, they are the most fulfilled people on earth. Recently I heard of a young man who decided that he would sacrifice a career by taking a more menial job that would allow him to spend more time out in the marketplace, introducing others to this Jesus. So he spends two full days each week on the streets and in the university, bringing Jesus to anyone who God opens up to him. Recently, this person prayed for another non-believer, who was in chronic pain recovering from a broken back, and they were healed.

There is scepticism around signs and wonders, perhaps for good reason. The gifts have been contrived and abused, worse even used to gain wealth, causing hurt to many along the way. Yet we mustn’t be surprised that when we are prepared to sacrifice all for Christ, when he is proclaimed publicly and put in his proper position, that he acts in such a way. Signs and wonders shall surely follow, demons will flee and captives will be set free. As a result, the healed man introduced others, friends of his, to Christ and being as astounded as he by what had happened, they have committed to follow him. He is a better covenant.

This week we were out on the streets, sitting and watching and waiting to see who the Lord might lead us to. We began to talk to a young Spanish couple, John and Annie, here on a working visa. The conversation was fairly typical of many we have with young people with no particular belief. Who made all this? Who decides what is good and evil? God is both Holy as well as loving, what does that mean? As always, the most interesting part is when we come to the person of Jesus Christ.  Who he was, why he came, why he had to do what he did and what that means for us; Jesus never fails to intrigue.

There is absolutely no cleverness needed when we explain Jesus, his name alone is sufficient to begin to wring change in people’s lives. People always seem to listen more intently when we get to him. We ended up by blessing John and Annie as we prayed that they would not easily forget the conversation we had. I suspect it won’t be the last.

As I turned to leave, my wife grabbed me round to face a young Chinese student who had been listening into the conversation; he wanted to carry it on. So, for the next half an hour we had the delight of being able to tell more of the Gospel to Michael, a student from China studying at Usyd. Michael had heard the Gospel before, had never responded, but now he isn’t far away. So, in an afternoon, we managed to start the sowing process with a young couple from Spain, who walked away clearly moved yet without responding. Who knows what will happen down the track. Then we were able to carry on, still on the same seat, with another who had heard before. We added seed to the line of sowers God had already used in this young man’s life.

We have since introduced Michael to some believers at Usyd, and sense that he is not far off committing his life to Christ and we are looking forward to meeting him again soon. Hopefully, when he commits we can train him to go and make disciples as well.

Again and again we see the person of Jesus bringing great change in people’s lives. For each of us reading here, we know the impact he has had with us. His grace, his beauty, his power the sheer matchlessness of Jesus makes him a person that cannot and should not be contained. God knows that his Son alone is able to change this world, and so he asks you and me, simple believers, to move in our circles introducing others to this Christ. We don’t need to be articulate, to know a lot, to be well-known or ordained, he simply asks us to go.

Through him, because of him, people everywhere have a better covenant. The age old question that so many have, how can I get close to this God is answered only in Jesus. We must tell people everywhere that times have changed, we no longer need to rely on us to get to God, all we must do is put our faith in another. The door to God is now wide open to all who would believe, good news to all who would hear.