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Identify with Jesus?

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And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” – St Matthew’s Gospel

Last week, I had the pleasure of taking some friends – a family we have embraced, out to lunch. Picture the scene. Me in a suit, a mother and her two sons, all from Housing Commission, all with mental disabilities, marching into the local trendiest café in town. Their choice.

The eldest son, a young man we met lying on the pavement many years ago, lives in barely more than a squat and is visibly mentally ill. Verging on obese, his clothes haven’t been washed in a while. The others similar, suffering high anxiety and looking decidedly dishevelled. The son decided it was appropriate for us to sit in the very centre of the café and proceeded to order half the menu. He would dine out on this for at least a few days. Before eating, a small eskie was brought out, which contained an entire cleaning apparatus. We were to go through a noisy, ritual cleansing prior to eating. It was hilarious.

Driving home later, I reflected on the experience and the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus total identity with the lost, the last and the least. He seemed quite comfortable, thrilled even in the presence of outcasts. Make no mistake, we could feel the stares as we walked into that café. The waitress was short, quick as though she couldn’t wait to move on, to ‘normal people.’

I’m sure Jesus hung around such people at least partly because they had a story to tell, they were interesting, rich in the muck of everyday humanity. Our conversation was a delight, meaningful, authentic and genuine. They talked of growing up in poverty, facing hardship at schools, moving around, suffering the ignominy of mental illness; being slow meant they found it hard to keep a job, and usually had to live miles away from families if they want government housing. While they had perhaps become hardened to the attitudes and finger pointing of those around them, the blows still hurt.

It’s one thing to be running Bible Study in people’s homes, it’s quite another to be seen with them in a local café, full of trendy’s (like us). To be seen out, is to fully identify with them as friends, family even and so in turn to be stared at. Our labels matter so much to us.

Yet Jesus saw past all that and recognised people made in the image of God. He loved them, ate with them and saw many respond to his message. Our conversation around the table was also full of God’s grace, with the expectation that one day all of us were waiting for a life to come, a city built by the Father of Spirits, where festal gatherings with angels occurs, as Hebrews tells us.

What did I learn from my simple lunch? As a believer, I don’t really identify with the lost, the last the least as much as I should, or as much as Jesus did. That in fact, is where the rich soil of the Gospel lies, where Jesus is most likely to impact lives. Money, status it seems simply hardens hearts towards God. That I could do a lot more to ‘bring God’s Kingdom to earth’ than I do, to show love to those in need not so much by giving them anything, but by walking alongside them in full view.

Jesus’s Gospel is very clear as an example to us. The only people that he ever railed at, were the rich, the elite of his day. Their hearts hardened against God’s own loving Son, as they counted the cost of following him and decided it was too much.

The poor, the maligned, the sick though – almost without exception they came to him face down on their knees, with their hands up, hoping against hope that he would heal them, love them, accept them. How do we see ourselves today, who do we associate with? Is it Jesus’ Gospel you and I are living?

Will you be next?

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Of this Gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, given me by the working of his power– Ephesians

It seems a fundamental difference between the church in the West and the East, is the concept around a minister. In the East, thousands of ordinary believers see themselves empowered to proclaim the Gospel, make Disciples and plant churches. From the get-go, new believers are taught that proclaiming the Gospel with a view to making Disciples is the normal Christian life.

I arrived late into Auckland airport this week, and it had been a long day already. My taxi driver was Ravi and we drove into town. Ravi was from Punjab, in the North of India and chatted away merrily, while I sat in silence, too tired to talk. Poor me. Along the way, I sensed the prompting of the Holy Spirit to engage, but I resisted. Time and again, I felt the prod to talk but as we all do, any sense of calling was pushed away until at last I relented.

Very often it appears that such brief conversations are a waste of time, but they’re not ever a waste. As we arrived at our destination, Ravi told me an incredible story that had happened just a few weeks before. He had been driving down from the North of New Zealand, some 400km north of Auckland, and he came across a hitcher. As a taxi driver, the last thing Ravi would do is stop to pick up a hitcher, especially travelling at 100k/hr but he felt a compulsion to pull over.

The man he picked up, was someone whose work was to help people discover Jesus. They spent the next 3 hours discussing Jesus and comparing him to Hindu gods. Along the way, the man told Ravi that he would normally have got a lift down with his friends, but Jesus had told him that he was to set out walking, as he wanted to introduce him to someone who would pick him up, which turned out to be Ravi.

Ravi was amazed that now two people who had been in his car would be ‘sent’ by Jesus. I was able to write down some Bible verses for him to read and showed him how to Google them on his phone. We prayed about his wife arriving from India, and how he might explain Jesus to members of his family.

All of us, as believers, are called to be ministers of Christ in any circumstance that arises. I fear that the Gospel for most is not a way of life.

If we as believers are walking in the Spirit, then every moment of every day we are listening, waiting for him to present opportunities. We simply need to respond. We need not be ashamed, or fearful or feel odd because we choose to share Jesus; contrarily, it must be a priority for all of us in our lives to follow Paul’s example and minister Christ to others. We simply open our mouths in response.

The prayer Jesus taught his Disciples was firstly to Glorify the name of the Father and then bring his Kingdom and Will to earth. They are the priority – in a sense, our role is not so much to find out what the will of God is for our lives, but to find out what his will is, and become part of it. If this is true, then his will is abundantly clear, to bring others back to relationship with him, through Jesus Christ. Not some people, but all people. We don’t get to choose, he does.

When Jesus leads you to the next person, the question for all of us is will we respond? At the prompting of the Spirit, will we be a part of sowing into Ravi such that someone can then reap, or as I have been guilty of so often, will we simply ignore the prompting of the Spirit. Someone else can take care of it.

Can we imagine the consequences on the last day, when those we have ignored, stand before Christ with an incomplete picture because of our unwillingness? What will Jesus say, how will we explain that to him? Surely, you and I, need to take our responsibilities as ministers, as Paul did, far more seriously. Let us be next when Ravi comes along.

So What?

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I’m having an email exchange with a pastor who writes a blog about the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. I agree entirely with his thinking, which to me at least, is fresh and exciting – in a nutshell, he says that Jesus was talking exclusively about AD70 in this passage, not the end times. The arguments, read with a determination not to be coloured by years of teaching, are persuasive. Most of all though, they are impactful.

Recently, I asked the writer, ‘so what does it mean’ if this is actually correct? He hadn’t answered that question, the most important question. He’s decided to answer it in the blog, but it would seem he’s missed the point. He, the writer, has simply loaded more doctrine onto more theology. The real ‘so what’ in my view at least, is that if Matthew 24 is only about AD70 and the Old Covenant at that point was totally destroyed, we exist in something fantastically new. Except we don’t.

We haven’t been out on the streets recently for various reasons, and things have changed. It’s meant that we don’t have that passion for taking the Gospel to the world – whereas once we would stop and pray for people anywhere (and everywhere) we are now more hesitant. Whereas once we were so unashamed of the Gospel, now we hide it more. We are more comfortable with the world and our Christianity becomes only for ourselves and other believers. As a result, our entire relationship with Christ has become more jaded. Fortunately though, Christ is not quite so content to leave things as they are with us.

I spent Sunday morning with an old addict friend of mine – someone I originally met on the streets. He has been clean for 100 days, and when he is clean he is the most delightful person in the world. I really enjoy his company. He is suspicious of Christians, and all things church, which in turn reflect his attitude towards Christ. But, he sees Christ in what we are trying to do, and it piques his interest. I get to bring Jesus into conversations and pray with him. This morning was a refreshing morning as I was reminded that we have many friendships from the streets, and many of the people still want to hear more of the Gospel. There is much work to be done and it has given me the impetus to start ‘getting out there’, wherever God shows ‘out there’ to be to us; who knows maybe even you too?

And the ‘So What?’ point of all this is..?

The New Covenant in Christ, changed everything. In particular, it changed where Christ would meet with people, and who he would meet with. The priesthood, the buildings, the structure of worship, the money, the tithing, the rules, all of it was gone. At least it should be. It certainly disappeared in the New Testament. Christ, the Disciples and his church moved out of the Temple, the synagogue and into the marketplace. Christ, the ‘perousia’ is ever present, ruling with his church in the here and now. I would challenge that wherever there is a move of the Spirit in revival, it is where people start proclaiming the Gospel in the marketplace. Indonesia, China, Arabia, think about it. Christ on the streets.

We have though, kept certain things from the Old Covenant. We have kept particularly the structure, but also the company – our Western churches especially are filled often with ‘nice people’ who are perhaps 2nd or 3rd generation believers. Few others, if we’re honest, would ever darken the doors of a church. There is a costly risk in embracing the New Covenant, and we don’t want to give up our day job so much to embrace it fully. The Old Covenant was so convenient, because we could go through the ritual without it having much impact in our lives. Sound familiar?

But reading this blog has become a revelation and a revolution in my own life. If the Old Covenant really did end in AD70, then the implications are enormous for how we, Christ’s church here on earth, live our lives. We are called to be very different, to deny ourselves, and to give up everything for him.  Are you and I living like that?

One poignant thing is this – in AD70 God enacted serious vengeance on the nation of Israel for rejecting his message over the centuries, and especially for rejecting his precious Son. It would seem that period was one of the worst in history, and one designed specifically by God. The message was clear.

I wonder if we feel so safe continuing to ignore him today. We shouldn’t test his patience.

Redemption, Righteousness and Worship

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Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to falsehood, who does not swear deceitfully. – Psalm 24

We’ve been out on the streets recently, sharing Jesus with whomever would listen. More than that, in the few gatherings we belong to, some are discovering Jesus, and even beginning to share him with others. It is exciting, watching a movement begin.

At some stage with everyone we meet, the true Gospel has to be shared. It doesn’t have to be denominational, or religious, but it does need to be comprehensive. While tools such as 3 Circles are excellent to introduce people to Christ, and to get them to even think about God and his plan for their lives, it is not enough.

There is a logical, and chronological sequence to the Gospel story, that inevitably starts with redemption. Jesus has redeemed us. From what you may ask, from our sin. When we acknowledge that and only when we acknowledge that, can God possibly forgive us. Why is it then, that so many shy away from bringing this into a conversation? Friends, has it been so long since you have felt the crippling consequences of sin, and what it means to have that lifted? Are we somehow not confident of the redemptive power Jesus will have in someone’s life, when they seek his forgiveness? Do we no longer understand that God will forgive us through Christ, only when we seek his pardon?

We stopped talking about redemption, the moment we decided that the numbers of empty seats in our church would increase dramatically, if people were faced with such a message.

When we are redeemed, we are then made righteous in Christ. Paul spoke more of this than almost anything, a person who turned humbly to God for the forgiveness of sin, was given the righteousness of Christ. Further, if it were possible there could even be more, that indwelling of Christ’s spirit in a believer means they have the power to overcome sin in their lives. We can intentionally pursue righteousness.

As a believer moves through all of this, at last they are able to wander as a child into the very throne room of the Almighty and lift their arms to their Heavenly Father in love and adoration. Throughout their entire earthly lives, this cycle will repeat and draw them ever deeper into God. Transformation is continual.

Why is it we have become so reluctant, or even inept at telling this incredible story? Why, in a world addicted to drugs and sex, filled with depression, disease and violence are we so unable to provide an answer?

Part of that answer is surely that the modern Western believer cannot. We don’t know how. Many sitting in our comfortable churches, have been so used to one person doing all the talking, teaching and thinking that they simply do not know how to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a non-believer. I know, because for many years I was one.

For the overwhelming majority in this world, nobody has ever walked into their lives and caused them to stop and think about what is coming. Death has been cleverly carved out of the conversation by the enemy, sin has been nullified and sanitised by secularism, and Jesus is now simply one on a menu of many.

Which leave us, just a few of us, to try and change that. We simply cannot keep turning our back on the world, ignoring Christ’s command to his followers and pretend that we have more pressing priorities. It will not wash, in fact it never has. Surely Jesus expects more from us.

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